


Autistic and Adopted

by GarbageFanfics



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Child Neglect, Depression, Family Issues, Feels, Gen, Get ready to cry, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Parent-Child Relationship, Sad, Suicide Attempt, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2020-12-29 00:04:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 53,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21145457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GarbageFanfics/pseuds/GarbageFanfics
Summary: Angella watched as the eight-year-old blonde nervously glanced at her from the stairway.  She kept her eyes focused on the stairway waiting for Adora to peek her head out again.  As excepted the shy child did.  Their eyes meeting briefly.  Angella looked at her with a raised brow, curious as to what Adora was doing.  All be it she was slightly annoyed by how indirect her adopted daughter was.  She barely spoke and constantly looked anxious and timid.  Nothing prior to what she had seen of her at the foster home and during their meetings with her social worker. Her blue eyes met Angella’s light brown eyes—she instantly hid again.  Fearful almost of being caught staring.Adora is adopted into a new loving family that sadly doesn't understand the autistic spectrum.





	1. New House and Sister

Angella watched as the eight-year-old blonde nervously glanced at her from the stairway. She kept her eyes focused on the stairway waiting for Adora to peek her head out again. As excepted the shy child did. Their eyes meeting briefly. Angella looked at her with a raised brow, curious as to what Adora was doing. All be it she was slightly annoyed by how indirect her adopted daughter was. She barely spoke and constantly looked anxious and timid. Nothing before what she had seen of her at the foster home and during their meetings with her social worker. Her blue eyes met Angella’s light brown eyes—she instantly hid again. Fearful almost of being caught staring.

“Adora?” Angella questioned. “Everything alright?” Her tone almost insinuating that Adora was up to no good. 

The stumble in her daughter's voice made her regret that as she heard the timid replied “No, mom. Sorry, I just wanted to sit next to you. I—'ll stay in my room, s-sorry” then she heard the small feet run upstairs as if it was a race.

The older women mentally kicked herself for being so uninviting. She kept forgetting how un-independent Adora was compared to her Glimmer. To where Glimmer at the age of nine could easily articulate what she wanted; Adora could not. A tragic side effect of Adora’s mental condition. Patience was going to be something Angella would need to get used to while caring for an autistic child. 

Adora; now in her room rushed to her bed. Regretting even going downstairs in the first place. She felt foolish for even thinking that Angella would want her around. These several weeks of adjusting to her new house were not easy. Admittedly she loved her big pretty house, but she missed her friends from foster care deeply. Especially Catra. before she left Catra gave her a stuffed plush monkey she named _Howie. _It was her favorite stuffed animal, but she wanted Adora to have it. She missed all the other toys she had too. She missed playing with all her other friends all the time. In this new house, it was very quiet and organized and playing. 

Glimmer didn’t pay much attention to Adora. She was her new big sister. Adora thought Glimmer was the coolest girl she ever met. Glimmer played soccer and went horseback riding and had lots of cool 3rd-grade friends. It saddened her to know that Glimmer didn’t like toys or cartoons. She liked to play by herself on her tablet or watch bigger kid shows on VH1 or TLC. Adora liked Disney and stuff and Glimmer wouldn’t be caught dead watching Hanna Montana or Phineas and Ferb.

She sat down at her desk. Her room was nice. She had her bed, desk, and dresser, and closet. She had all new clothes and some puzzles and educational toys as her new mother called them. No dolls or Legos like what Adora was used to. Her new mom says that these toys are better for children with autism. A word Adora only heard a few times when she was in foster care and at her old school. But now she hears it all the time. Especially from her new mom and she hated it. She didn’t like being referred to as her _“Autistic daughter”_ or “_Her special girl”_ because she knows special is replacing words like stupid, useless, or not good enough. To the small blonde, it was the same as when Sue Weaver would call Catra the “Problem Child” or “The one you need to keep an eye on” they weren’t nice. She has a name, why does she need to be called autistic instead of Adora?

It wasn’t long until her new dad came home and offered to take both Glimmer and Adora to the store with him.

Nothing special, just Walmart. He needed to pick up his for after getting new tires for his truck and offered to take the girls out to McDonald's if they came with him. 

Adora was just glad to get out of the house. 

They all went to Angella’s car. Adora didn’t mind car rides. Her neighborhood was nicer than her old one. She just happily looked out the window while her sister just gave her a look of annoyance. 

_It’s just a car ride_

Glimmer was indifferent at best to Adora. After realizing they have nothing in common and taking up the little time she had with her parents and aunt made her angry. It wasn’t like Adora did anything special. 

When they got to the store Adora remembered her old routine with Sue and her foster friends. Everyone had a store buddy and they had to hold hands. Adora reached to grab Glimmer’s hand as they walked into Walmart and it was instantly swatted away, and Glimmer asked her “What are you doing?” in a rude tone. This caused Micah and Angella to turn around and stare at the now reddening child. 

Adora tapped her hands together and nervously replied. “S—sorry. Sue used to make us hold hands at stores, so I just thought—” she was cut off by Glimmer.

“No one does that here,” before walking closer to Micah. 

Angella offered to Adora “You don’t need to hold hands in stores, okay sweetie” She didn’t want Adora to feel she had to do that. What she didn’t understand was holding hands was comforting to her and wondering a store made her anxious. Even if she was standing next to them, it still didn’t feel right. She hung her head in humiliation. “Sorry” she apologized in her small voice. 

Micah felt her unease but didn’t offer anything to aid Adora in her troubles. 

As they walked further into the store; Micah went off to the auto service department. In almost a panic Adora asked to go with him. She didn’t want to be around Glimmer and Angella.

Micah agreed and let Adora go with him to auto services. 

Leaving Angella and Glimmer alone. The tall woman looked down at her biological daughter with disapproval. 

“You could have said it nicer to her” Angella’s tone was a warning. “We talked about this, Adora doesn’t understand things the way we do. You need to be patient with her”

“I didn’t want to hold her hand” Glimmer replied sharply and crossed her arms as they walked down the arts and craft aisle together. “She’s weird, mom. She barely talks and when she does, she sounds weird”

Angella gave her another disapproving look “She just lost her front baby tooth, Glimma. She can’t help it”

“She can’t tie her shoes right, she watches baby shows, and she’s always crying about something”

“Glimma!” her mother hissed at her. She crouched down to Glimmer as she spoke directly in her face “She is your new sister, as the older sister you must be more understanding to her”

Glimmer moved away and just whined “But she’s so weird, mom”

Angella stood back up “Adora isn’t weird, Glimma, she has autism. She can’t help it”

Glimmer rolled her eyes. She didn’t care about Adora’s autism as much as her mom did. Despite Angella’s best intentions; explaining to her nine-year-old that Adora was different was not the best idea. It was now permanently stuck in Glimmer’s head that Adora was different from her in any negative way possible. If Angella never mentioned it, things would have been better. For someone so mature for her age; Glimmer now saw Adora as a glass doll, almost. Being told that Adora won’t understand jokes, big words, social and physical boundaries and ay act more childlike for her age made Glimmer instantly wary of her new sister. She got lucky and she didn’t need to spend much time with her for the rest of the night. 

The next day was Sunday and Glimmer got invited by her friends from school to go to the park as a playdate. Glimmer only agreed to go because Bow asked her to, and he was going. All the parents would be there with them. Angella was dreading this playdate, as most of the parents didn’t like her. The park was located next to the visitors’ center for tourists, so the moms liked to hang out by the picnic tables and buy coffee at the café inside while the kids played. 

As they got ready for the morning, Glimmer became annoyed to find out that Adora was coming. She didn’t want Adora to play with her friends.

Once they arrived, she was greeted by Mermista, Perfuma, and Bow. The three noticed Adora was behind Glimmer. 

Glimmer then pointed to her “Guys, this is Adora, my adopted sister”

Adora shyly waved to them. 

In Adora’s mind, all she saw was 3rd graders and to a 2nd grader, that was cool. She thought so highly of Glimmer, so her friends must be cool like her. Before Adora could say anything, Glimmer ordered her to play somewhere else.

“Go play over by the swings Adora, we’re going to play by the slides” Glimmer said as she pointed for Adora to leave. The blonde just nodded and frowned. She waved goodbye and left Glimmer to be with her friends. 

Bow gave her a disapproving look “Why didn’t you let her play with us?”

“Yeah that was mean, Glimmer” Mermista said. 

Glimmer shook off the disapproval and answered with “My mom says Adora plays differently, she as autism so she can’t play normally like us”

Perfuma gave a worried look over to Adora. “Should she be alone then?”

Adora went over to swing alone with her head down to not look at Glimmer and her friends.

Glimmer then shrugged “Mom says she slow, but she can come to the park and play. She’s fine”

“Slow?” Bow asked. 

The group started to walk over to the slides. Glimmer answered “Slow, like her brain doesn’t work right”

Perfuma then let out a sad “Awww, she must so sad”

Glimmer brushed off her friends' worries “She’s fine, can we just go play”

While Glimmer played with her friends. Adora sat on the swing swaying slowly back and forth as tears ran down her face. She hated her new life with the Brighten’s.

From the picnic tables all the moms; plus, Bow’s dads could see was Adora alone while the other kids were on the other side. 

“A bit of a loner, that one, huh Angella?” Lance asked. 

Angella looked up from her laptop “Oh, yes. Adora is more comfortable playing by herself” she didn’t pay any mind to Adora. She was too focused on her emails. Another reason why she didn’t want to bring Glimmer to this playdate, she was busy with work. 

It never occurred to Angella that Adora may be upset. Glimmer and Bow were playing on the monkey bars. Glimmer looked over to see Adora was crying again. She felt guilty. She wished she knew what to do with her. She was her new little sister, she had to do something. But for now, she just enjoyed her day to play. Tomorrow Adora starts school with her. 


	2. Big kid talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer converses with her third-grade friends about her new sister.

Adora remembers her old foster mother Sue giving her key advice before her going off to live with the Brighten family. 

_Remember Adora, you’re the adopted child, you better behave yourself or you’ll be sent to a group home. Don’t cry or act out as Catra does and you better not under any circumstance upset your new sister and family. If you want a one-way ticket to being orphaned, again. You better not mess this up, remember, you can’t come back to live here after they sign the papers. Like it or not you’re a Brighten now….._

The words slightly haunted Adora. In her two weeks of being adopted, she was desperately trying to adapt without saying much in fear of upsetting her new family. The looming fear of Glimmer not liking her and telling her parents to get rid of Adora was a fear that plagued her. Many of her fears were constantly on her mind. As much as she hated the dark; she knew she couldn’t keep a light on. When she asked Angella about anything she seemed to get an answer she never wanted.

_“M—mommy? Can I have a night light for my room” Adora asked her, Angella raised a brow and responded, “Why?”_

_Adora fidgeted nervously and looked away. Eye contact was har for her when she was nervous “When it gets dark, I feel scared—I feel safer if I can see better at nighttime” _

_Angella faced her and in her most posh and calm manner told Adora she didn’t need a night light because their house was very safe. _

_Adora frowned and nodded. She regretted even asking her. _

At night the dark shadows felt like things were moving around her room. She would barely sleep. She would wake up tired and stress about what to wear. She had an issue matching her clothes and she didn’t like how her new clothes felt. They were mostly starchy, lots of jeans, and had buttons on them. She didn’t like the way they felt. 

She remembered her first-time dressing in her new clothes and coming downstairs. Originally Micah chuckled because he thought Adora was trying to be funny wearing a red and white striped shirt with black and white polka dot pants. He was slightly uncomfortable when he realized she wasn’t kidding, and he needed to pick out her outfit for her. Angella was too busy with her work to do it herself and Adora heard Glimmer taunt her in the background with the remark.

_“I could dress when I was five!”_

Which that earned her a shush from her mother and Angella reminded Glimmer yet again, about Adora’s autism. 

It was humiliating. Micah picked out a pair of dark blue jeans, a yellow shirt, and a grey and yellow sweatshirt. 

Adora didn’t like the outfit and she didn’t like what was for breakfast either. Angella made her eat grapefruit, yogurt, and plain milk to drink. Adora knew milk gave her tummy aches but was afraid to tell Angella, in case she got mad at Adora as she did about her not matching her clothes. She ate it despite hating it. She was lucky for the rest of the day; because she had school.

She missed her old school because she missed Catra, but she liked her new school. she made new friends, and everyone was nice to her. Even her new teacher was nice to her. The milk Adora drank would usually make Adora feel sick and need to go to the nurse. Her teacher was nice and would let her go when she needed to. She was also lucky she had friends to sit with at lunch—cafeteria food was better than her new mom’s food and recess so she could play normally with other kids. She was the second tallest girl in 2nd grade and the faster runner out of her class. Adora made lots of friends; she became close to another girl with autism named Entrapta and her friend; the tallest girl in 2nd grade Scorpia. They were really nice to Adora and according to Entrapta and another friend named Emily; at least four boys had a crush on her. The boys she didn’t care about. They were all really nice to her. All her crushes shared their snacks with her and everyone wanted to play with her.

During recess, the second and third graders shared the playground but usually stayed on opposite sides. Glimmer watched from the top of the jungle gym with Bow and Perfuma.

Perfuma commented “She’s playing normally with the other kids”

“Yeah,” Bow added, “I think your mom was wrong about her being slow”

Glimmer nodded “I guess, but I have to make sure, mom said Adora could have a meltdown if she’s overwhelmed” Glimmer didn’t really know what she was saying but was copying what she overheard her mother say.

Bow looked at her and asked “Like a temper tantrum? I used to have those when I was three, that’s what my brother said”

Perfuma then asked “Does she need to go to the special classes? One girl in my class goes to a different classroom during reading time”

“A different classroom?” Glimmer questioned.

Just as she spoke another voice from bellow them answered: “I know what classroom that is!”

It was Mermista. She was starting to climb up to be with her other friends “Special Ed. The classroom is where the wheelchair kid goes and the girl who wears a thing on her head goes, and the boy that drools, and the girl with the messed-up eyes go” she panted as she made her way to the top.

Glimmer then looked over to Adora from the other side of the playground. She saw that Adora was sitting with a girl with pigtails playing with a ball. “That girl goes to that class, right?” she pointed at Entrapta. 

Mermista nodded “Yeah, but she’s…. normal? I guess? She talks normally. The other kids don’t”

“Adora sometimes stutters” Glimmer commented. “Mom says she doesn’t want Adora in Special classes, something about stunting her potential”

Perfuma then offered “But those kids look happy in that class and you said Adora cries a lot; maybe if she goes to those classes she won’t be as sad”

“Those kids get to watch movies all the time” Bow added.

Glimmer looked over at her again “Mom says Adora can get hurt easily because she doesn’t know how to be careful, that’s a part of her autism. When she came to live with us, she had bruises and cuts all over her. And she has a burn scar on her foot”

Mermista then asked “Is Adora’s autism the one where she needs to wear safety gear, like the helmet girl or does she need medication? My cousin takes meds and my auntie says without them he’s a mess”

“Does Adora take meds?” Perfuma asked. 

Glimmer shook her head “No, mom says inducing the mentally ill can lead to more side effects”

“What does that mean?” Mermista asked. Unsure of what Glimmer was trying to say.

Glimmer shrugged “I don’t know what it means either, it’s all the doctor stuff my mom talks about over the phone with grandma or my auntie”

Perfuma asked “Does Adora need a helmet instead? Like the girl who hits herself?”

Glimmer then pondered for a moment “Hmm? Maybe? She bumps into stuff and is kind of jumpy. She flinches around mom and dad, so I think she can’t tell how close she is because of her autism. She tried to hold my hand in Walmart so I think she can’t walk around like normal people can without getting hurt”

Bow then added in “But if she wore a helmet?”

Glimmer’s eyes widened a bit as she came with an epiphany “Maybe if she wears one, she will be better and the autism will go away”

“Then she can play with us” Perfuma chimed in. 

Glimmer looked over to see her little sister smiling with her friends. She smiled back at her without Adora knowing she had been watched this whole time.

“I think if I tell her to wear a helmet, she will be better—she can do all the stuff I do” she turned to Bow. “My mom will be so happy that Adora will be normal…… I’ll be such a good big sister if I fix her autism”

She beamed to herself. 

_This is perfect! All I have to do is make Adora wear a helmet and Boom! All her autism will go away_

Later at home—Adora dreaded leaving school. Glimmer got lucky and went swimming classes with mommy and Adora had to stay home with daddy. The good thing about daddy was he didn’t cook so they got to eat McDonald's. She got a happy meal and toy. She was happy to eat food that didn’t hurt her tummy. Later she would watch TV while daddy worked in his garage. He had cars and motorcycles. She thought what he does was cool. She wished she could ask him to play with her, but he was busy. She didn’t want to bother him—plus, he got her a happy meal and she got to play with a new toy.

She felt a little better than mommy and Glimmer wasn’t home. 

She really wanted them to like her. She did everything they told her to do. She knew that over the weekend she would get to go to the park again. Glimmer told her that next time they went she could play with her friends. 

Adora was happy. It finally looked like Glimmer was starting to like. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready to have your hearts broken in chapter 3 as Adora has her first sensory overload in front of everyone.


	3. Sensory Overload

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer attempts to help her sister have a normal day at the park. Angella fears Adora is being made fun of and all Adora wants to do is play.

As of Tuesday, Glimmer had made extra strides in being kinder to Adora. for the past few days, she had checked in on Adora more and played Candyland and shoot and ladders with her. Despite Glimmer hating board games, she did it since those were the only toys and games Adora had in her room. This filled Angella with joy as she had signaled to Micah to watch from the doorway with her.

Angella whispered “Look, Glimmer is taking her under her wing, isn’t this beautiful”

Micha nodded. He was proud to see his little girl playing nice with his new baby girl. 

Now with-it being Thursday Glimmer enjoyed the extra attention she was getting from the adults. Her parents and teachers thought of her as a saint for her kindness towards her sister.

All while her intentions being somewhat good, she also liked the idea of being the good and caring older sister. But she didn’t look at Adora as her sister. She saw her still as the glass doll that couldn’t be shaken. She spoke to Adora in a softer tone and slower than with her friends and classmates. She almost talked to Adora like she was a baby. 

Angella and Micah were unaware of how negative this was secretly affecting Adora. The little blonde thought she was officially welcomed into her big sister’s good graces. She felt that she had a new best friend; like Catra and Lonnie. She told Glimmer everything and was opening up to her the most out of everyone in the family. 

On Friday before the planned playdate. She went to Glimmer’s room and would now knock on her door and show her drawings that she made. 

Glimmer; not being one for drawing. Really didn’t care but to Adora, this was her outlet. She showed Glimmer her yellow sketchpad from foster care and walked her through childhood. 

Glimmer sat on her bed as Adora happily flipped through her sketchpad to show her drawings. Glimmer took this time to examine Adora’s physical appearance and her mannerisms. She sat legs crossed, her comfortable house clothes didn’t match but from what she could gather seeing Adora around the house was she preferred her clothes to be loose fitted or at the very least not too tight. Her hair was in a ponytail, she rarely saw it down and her bangs were always in the way. Her hair looked sometimes disheveled, but not every extremely messy. She also saw that Adora had a slight lisp in her voice, which might be a result of her still having some missed spots in her mouth due to having lost two of her baby teeth recently.

Adora was cute, she couldn’t deny that. Even when mom showed her a picture of what her new sister was going to look like Glimmer had commented that Adora was pretty. That was the first thing Adora even said to her was that she thought Glimmer was pretty. It was nice. Adora never came off as mean or whiny to her, but Glimmer did. 

The older girl frowned at herself as she realized she hadn’t been nice to Adora as much as she should have and Adora either didn’t notice or was more forgiven then her, as she pointed to her drawings.

“This is me and my friend Catra, and my friend Lonnie, and my friend Kyle and, this used to be our old house”

Adora said holding up her sketchpad; Glimmer noted that Adora was a pretty good drawer. The stick figures with hair and the drawing of a house were easy to indicate which was which as far as art by a child goes.

“And what's that lady holding?” Glimmer asked. Pointing to the drawing of a taller stick figure with hair and what appears to be smoke coming from her hand.

“Oh, That is Sue and she smokes cigarettes, those were her favorite thing so I draw her with them”

Glimmer raised a brow. She was puzzled as to why an adult would smoke in front of kids, her mother would always scoff and give dirty looks to anyone smoking in public places if they were around them. Her mom says smoking is for the _dullards_.

Adora then flipped the page to show Glimmer a stick figure that was supposed to resemble Adora and her cat friend holding hands and above them were, assuming… angels?

“This is me and Catra again and above are my parents that went to heaven when I was a baby”

Glimmer was shocked to hear this “Your real parents died? They’re dead?” she questioned. 

Adora stuttered “Y—yeah, they were driving in the snow and crashed into another car and went to heaven and I went to live with Sue, then your mom and dad adopted me,” she said it so nonchalant as if she had been told the story in a way that had no gravitational weight. Glimmer bit her lip. Feeling bad for her. Glimmer was empathetic towards people, she felt bad when Bow’s hamster died, but knowing someone with actual dead parents so beyond sad and Adora didn’t seem to dwell on it at all. She just turned the page and kept showing Glimmer pictures. It was almost like their real first orientation of each other. The first time they met felt almost one-sided. Glimmer told her what she liked and didn’t like and barely paid any attention to Adora and what she said. To the adults it was great; the girls seemed to get along when in actuality Glimmer was indifferent to Adora and Adora was just too awestruck by having an older sister that no number of slight jabs and chastising from Glimmer could make Adora feel any less about her. 

Adora shared with Glimmer all her favorite foods that she missed eating and drew, and explains why Adora spends so much time in the upstairs bathroom was because almost everything Angella cooks makes her sick, and even how the clothes she had to wear made her feel itchy and uncomfortable. It was an interesting insight into Adora that Glimmer never noticed. Adora did understand what was going on and knew enough about them to draw diagrams of what they were about.

Adora showed three drawings that weren’t attached to the sketchpad. These were a different color paper but Adora kept with her other drawings. She held each one up to explain them. 

“This one is all about mommy—she’s from England so I drew the Big Ben clock, the London Bridge, and Harry Potter,” Adora’s expression was a bit of nervous excitement, she was sharing something personal to Glimmer and hope to get a good response from doing so “And this one is about daddy—he’s from New York so I drew tall skyscrapers, a taxi cab, hotdogs and the Mexican hat because daddy is Mexican” 

Glimmer noticed the third one was just a picture of a soccer ball, a microphone and the number 9.

Adora looked down at this one, she didn’t hold it up like the others, she then explains “I drew these when the social worker told me about my new family, she didn’t know a lot about you, so I could only go off what she told me you were like, you’re a year older than me…. You like soccer and you’re on a soccer team, and you like singing and Hanna Montana, that’s all I still know about you…….”

All of this came as another wave of guilt to Glimmer. She never bothered to ask about the things Adora liked, all she did was a comment that Adora still watched cartoons and little kid movies. She meant it in the meanest way possible because she was nine and wanted to be treated older and to have a little sister that was still in so babyish made her annoyed. She didn’t want to go back to playing barbies and my little pony’s; she wanted to be like the bigger kids and watch YouTube videos and listen to music with swears in them, but Adora just knew so little about her that she hyper-focused on the little things she knew and thought that Glimmer was all about these things. 

_I guess autism makes her obsessed with little stupid things. I don’t even like soccer practice, I’m just in it so I can play with the cute boys from the other third-grade class._

Adora then asked, “What else do you, mommy and daddy like so I can remember it and draw it?”

Glimmer blinked in surprise “Oh? Ummm….” What do mom and dad do besides work? All they do is work.

“Uhh, well dad is a lawyer, he was a cop when he was younger. He loves mom. She’s a doctor and she works with most of my friend's mom’s at the hospital…..Dad likes cars and motorcycles and he likes to go golfing. Mom used to be in the Olympics before I was born and used to swim, and she likes to still do that at the country club—Oh! And mom and I did swim classes together, and I get to go to England with her to visit Grandma and auntie Casta has a farm and we get to see dad’s family all the time because they live closer then mom’s family,” she couldn’t help but notice Adora’s curious look turn to a slight frown. 

“What’s wrong?” Glimmer asked.

Adora fidgeted with her fingers and nervously shifted on the bed in a slight rocking motion before stuttering out a reply “Did mommy tell them I have autism?” it was a worried panicked question. Like, Adora was afraid for others to find out. 

Glimmer shrugged “Maybe? Why?”

Adora looked down and replied in a whisper “I don’t like it when mommy talks about it, it hurts my feels. She talks like I’m invisible…..”

Adora was sharing with Glimmer ow Angella’s constant autism talk affected Adora. She felt as if she was being made fun of right in front of herself and didn’t like it. 

Glimmer asked “Didn’t you know? That you had autism?”

Adora shook her head “No one told me I had it until I had to see all those doctors and therapist ladies before I got adopted by your mom and dad….. I’m sorry…..”

“For what?” Glimmer asked,

“I didn’t know I was bad until I moved here….. Sometimes my head hurts, the lights and sounds make it hard to focus, I feel my head go fuzzy and sometimes I don’t understand what people say to me or what is going on…… I don’t to be different, I just am,” Adora looked to Glimmer. Their eyes met and Glimmer could see her sister’s blue eyes become glossy. She knew she was sad. More guilt came over Glimmer as she realized she had no idea what to do with Adora still. Despite this breakthrough and them bonding, Adora was still something so fragile to her and watching Adora become emotional made Glimmer uncomfortable.

“Adora…..” Glimmer trailed off. She didn’t want to see Adora cry in her room. But she wanted to Adora to leave, she made her feel weird. “I think it’s close to bedtime” that was a lie. Bedtime wasn’t for another hour. 

Adora couldn’t read how uneasy she made Glimmer but knew how to follow orders. She knew this was Glimmer’s way of telling her to leave. Adora didn’t say anything else and left. She picked up her sketchpad and the three loose drawings and went into her room, alone. 

Glimmer laid back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. 

_Adora didn’t know she was different, but could she not? What kind of kids makes a detailed drawing of what other people like to understand them, that’s just weird. But also, super sad……._

Glimmer turned to lay on her side. She felt bad for her and she hoped tomorrow her, and her friends could make Adora feel better, or at the very least have a day where she was less autistic. 

All three decided to plead with their parents for another park playdate by the tourist welcome center. The conclusion that the three came up with was to be extra sensitive to Adora. Perfuma decided to bring her bike helmet with the unicorn horn on it so Adora would have something to keep her autism from hurting her and Bow brought his older brother’s football helmet as a backup. In case Adora wanted to choose which helmet she wanted. No parent questioned this as several grade school children playing pretend was common. 

Adora and Glimmer had gotten up around the same time. Glimmer wanting to extra nice to Adora ease the awkward tension of last night. An awkward feeling the only Glimmer had and only Glimmer felt she needed to fix. She made Adora breakfast—technically it was toaster waffle and juice but to Adora, it was the nicest thing Glimmer has done for her. 

Later she offered to brush Adora’s soft pretty blonde hair and pull it up in a ponytail for her. She questioned why Adora always ad her bangs in her face despite clearly always brushing them aside and Adora told her that she used to get teased by her foster mother for having a big forehead. Glimmer’s stomach felt twisted at the idea of someone being mean to someone like Adora and informed her that her forehead was normal, and she was cute. Adora just smiled and turned bright pink as she stared down at her fidgeting hands. 

Glimmer then also realized that Adora was also a little shy and that was fine since Perfuma was also very shy and went pink if she had to talk in front of the class or had to raise her hand to go to the bathroom or something.

Micah and Angella were both off on the weekends but Micah had made plans to go golfing; leaving Angella to take the girls to the park again, which she did not like due to still needing to do work. She pushed aside her loathing for being convinced and having to deal with the other kid’s parents that she knew all to well were not fond of her and brought them over to the park. 

While their Glimmer took Adora’s hand and escorted her to her friends. Adora was happy. All her anxious feelings went away; she felt safe with Glimmer in the way Catra made her feel. 

Glimmer then instructed Adora to wait by the swing set while talked to her friend for a bit.

Perfuma then informed her “I brought my helmet, I told me not to but I told her it was important”

Bow then held up his brother’s football helmet “I took Andrea’s helmet and all he said what “_get out of my room” _so I did and, I also took whistle” Bow said holding it up in triumph. 

Glimmer nodded “Good, good, so listen—Adora doesn’t know that she’s, autistic, so we got to be extra careful. Okay?”

“Careful like?” Mermista asked.

Glimmer paused before answering “She said her head gets fuzzy when she hears loud noises or when things go to fast, so maybe, no running games. And, like, no yelling and stuff?” Glimmer shrugged. She wasn’t sure how this was going to go down, but all her friends were on board to Glimmer’s bad philosophy that Adora was too fragile to treat normally.

The four made their way over to Adora. Glimmer approached her with slight caution as she was without a doubt hiding something from her.

“Hey, Adora?” Glimmer.

Adora looked up at her from her swing.

“Uh, me and my friends…. We want you to play with us” she said cautiously. She glanced over nervously to her friends. To which Bow gave her a thumbs up to signify that Glimmer was doing a good job. 

Adora was excited to get to play with her sister and her friends. She jumped up.

“Yes! Yes please, thank you!”

Perfuma cooed “Awe, she’s so happy”

Mermista and Bow nodded. 

As Adora walked over to them Glimmer then informed Adora. 

Glimmer then offered to Adora. “But first you got to wear one of these,” she said as Bow and Perfuma held out the helmets for her to view.

“What are these for?” Adora asked.

Perfuma then chimed in “They're for your—” before she could finish Glimmer waved her hands as an invalidation to not finish her sentence. Perfuma then spouted out “Game? Uh, yeah, game—you get to be the? —” she looked over to Glimmer for some sort of answer. 

Glimmer then sputtered out “V.I.P! your our very important and special friend today, Adora so you get to wear a cool hat” She lied. Adora then replied with “But those are helmets”

Mermista then whispered to Perfuma “I thought she didn’t know stuff” which earned her a shush from her curly-haired friend. 

Glimmer then lied “Well, they didn’t have hats, so we are going to pretend okay?” 

Adora nodded. Bow then asked “So do you want me helmet or Perfuma’s bike helmet with a horn thing”

Perfuma corrected “It’s a unicorn horn”

Adora beamed “I like unicorns and horses”

Perfume smiled “Good,” and handed it to Adora. Mermista then commented. “You might need to help her” 

Perfuma then helped Adora place the helmet on her head. The parents paid no mind to this. Angella typed on her Chromebook. Nervously glancing over at Mermista’s mother. Holly-Anne, a tanned skinned hair curly-haired woman was not fond of Angella. As a nurse in the same hospital as Angella, she found her extremely difficult work with and Angella always had something to say. For her, she was the most favored out of the parents and was friends with Perfuma’s family and Bow’s. Angella was only there because the kids were friends with Glimmer and by default, they had to invite Angella. They would Prefer Micah, but he had been busy lately. No one noticed that Adora was the only one wearing headgear as the children played.

Despite Adora being padded up, she was having a lot of fun. Glimmer and all her friends were nice to her. 

Glimmer felt like Adora was more normal with headgear. She played pretend with Perfuma and Mermista; while the two dangled their legs off the ledge of where the bridge connecting the monkey bars to the slide were; Adora would rush over to try and get them with her unicorn helmet. Three giggled and squeaked as they would move their legs away just in time. 

Bow and Glimmer were on the seesaw and commented “She’s doing fine,” Bow said.

Glimmer agreed “Yeah, so I guess the helmet works”

Bow asked, “Does she need to wear one all the time now?”

Glimmer rolled her eyes “My mom will probably say no, so this needs to stay a secret”

“Oh?” Bow questioned.

“My mom thinks she knows everything about everything, she said we couldn’t see the Lego movie because it was a giant toy commercial, and I told her it was a toy movie and she said to not talk back; but like, It’s a movie, commercials aren’t an hour long. She thinks she’s so smart because she watches the stock market and doesn’t have any games on her phone” Glimmer ranted.

Bow then commented “My dad George has a candy crush on his phone”

“So does my dad, but mom is no fun, like—Ever! All mom does it work, dad does too but at least he tries to be fun when he isn’t”

Before the two could ramble on any further they were called over by Perfuma’s mom that they had ordered lunch and it was time to eat. 

All five children ran over to the benches to be with their parents. Adora was overly excited. She was having such a good time she ran straight into a pole almost. Good thing Mermista had grabbed her before she got hurt. Adora’s heart was racing. She was overly stimulated. She was jumpy and happy and—just realized she needed to pee. 

She let out a whine to Mermista “I need to go to the bathroom” 

Her new friend nodded and took her by the hand to the restroom. Adora flushed. Mermista was pretty and was holding her hand. 

All be it Mermista was doing a service of good to someone she assumed was mentally incapable of taking care of herself. 

While in the bathroom Angella came in to ask where Adora was.

Mermista only knowing very little Angella. Only that Glimmer thought she was the unfun parent and her mother always referred to her as Dr. Boss. 

In a childlike innocent sign of respect, she remembered her father was in the Navy as an office and would get saluted by the people that worked under him. 

She saluted Angella and said “She’s going pee Dr. Boss lady”

Angella raised a brow before giving the girl a slight scowl. Mermista instantly realized Angella was not happy. 

“I think your mother is waiting for you” Angella commented. 

The nervous girl nodded and left the bathroom to go to her mom.

Adora opened the stall door up and turned to see if her mother they're instead of Mermista. 

Instantly heart sank a bit. Seeing her mother racked her with a nervous feeling that controlled her whole body as she jumped a bit to see her. 

Angella then motioned her to the sink “C’mon, wash your hands after lunch we will be leaving” she informed her. 

This upset Adora as she looked at her with disbelief, hoping it wasn’t true. After leaving the bathroom Adora attempted to hold Angella’s hand for comfort but Angella pulled away.

“Was I bad?” Adora asked. Afraid of the answer.

“No, but I have a lot of work to do and I need us to leave soon”

Adora frowned at that. She didn’t want to leave. The outside seemed to make her head feel fuzzy again. The wind moving and all the extra sounds coming from the visitor’s center were starting to get to her senses. 

While they sat down at the lunch table; Mermista handed her a juice box and pocked the hole for the straw for her. 

Angella now was focusing in on Adora and how the other children were codling her. 

_Why is she the only one wearing a helmet still?_

“Adora take that helmet off” Angella ordered. No reason to wear a bike helmet to a lunch table. 

Adora started to fidget with the strap under the chin until Glimmer commented to her mom.

“Mom, she likes it, she doesn’t want to take it off”

Adora gulped. She didn’t say she wanted to keep it on. She wouldn’t dare talk back to her mother. But Glimmer does, Glimmer is very brave.

Perfuma and Mermista then commented together that “She needs it”

Angella shot a look at the parents. Who slightly looked nervous at the girls talking to Angella, it wasn’t like Angella would cold and snap at a bunch of nine-year-old kids Right?

Adora felt nervous and anxious she fidgeted in her seat a little. The attention was unwelcomed and having both Perfuma and Mermista shoulders and helmet made her squirm. Angella raised a brow.

“Why does Adora need the helmet?” she then turned to the most honest child at the table “Bow?” 

Glimmer tensed up. Bow wouldn’t be able to keep a secret from her mom. 

Bow then gulped of his sandwich and answered “Because, you told Glimmer that Adora has autism and she’s slow and can’t play normal, so we had her wear a helmet so she would be okay” 

Angella; including all the other parents’ mouths dropped in shock.

Four nine-year-old kids concluded that Adora needed a helmet because she was—autistic! To repeat the horrible yet absurd conclusion. Four nine-year-old kids concluded that Adora needed a helmet because she was—autistic! 

Angella shot up from her seat. Despite her calm voice, it was clear to everyone she was livid.

“Bow, thank you sweetheart, but we need to be going, Glimma, Adora, let’s go please,” she slammed her Chromebook closed. Glimmer snapped back “We didn’t do anything wrong! Adora was having fun!”

Angella then growled “You were making fun of her! All of you!”

She said grabbing Glimmer’s hand. “Get that off your sister we are leaving now”

Adora felt her eyes water and her breathing become heavy. The constant back and forth of everyone talking were setting her into a panic. 

_They were making fun of me?_

_Mom is mad at me?_

_These aren’t my friends?_

_Do we have to leave now because of me?_

_Did I do something wrong?_

_I did what Glimmer said, why are Glimmer and mommy yelling?_

“Adora,” Angella barked “Take that off, we’re leaving”

Adora’s hands trembled as she took off the helmet to reveal her messed up frizzy blonde hair, she faces her with humiliation and her eyes tearing up. She placed it the helmet down next to her half-eaten sandwich and stood up. She looked around. Her head still spinning as all the adults looked at her, Glimmer’s friends were staring too, she didn’t know what to do.

She felt like crying but that would just make her look like a baby in front of everyone. She looked over to the playground again and dashed over to the monkey bars and bridge connecting to the slide. 

_I’m not slow! I’m normal! I’ll show them!_

Tears escaped her eyes as she made her way over to the ladder going up to the monkey bars. She could still hear her mother talking to Glimmer before she heard Angella yell to Adora.

“Adora! no, we are leaving, no more playing” she commanded as she walked over to the frantic blonde. Adora’s eye was blurry from the crying. Her body trembled as she climbed her way over to the slide and hid in the tunnel of the plastic barrier away from her mother that was on the other end, ready to scoop her up and take her to the car. 

Adora had lost all control of her senses as she wailed into a fit of crying. All the thoughts rushed to her head. The dizzy feelings and sounds made her sick and all she could so as crawled out of the slide and into Angella’s arms was to allow her body to drop to the woodchips on the ground and flail and cry.

Her little legs squirmed and kicked as she hyperventilates and cried. 

She couldn’t get words out as Angella tried to shush her and inform her “Adora you are making a scene, stop it, please stop right now”

Adora couldn’t. Everything was too much for her. She wanted to explain to Angella and everyone that her feelings were hurt, and she could play normally like every other kid, she wanted to show them all that she could. 

But her body had betrayed her and all she could do was scream and cry while rolling on the ground.

Angella had lost patience. Embarrassed that Adora was making her look foolish and that she had no control of her children was bad and now she had to deal with punishing Glimmer for making Adora wear headgear like a special needs case. 

Glimmer used to have temper tantrums as a toddler, and this looked almost identical to that. 

Adora wasn’t getting her way to stay at the park and this was how she was going to react? Unexpectable!

Angella grabbed her with force and lifted off the ground. Doing her best to carry her despite Adora’s constantly moving and screaming.

Glimmer shot up from her seat in fear as her other shouted: “Grab the computer and my bag we are going now!”

Glimmer did as she was told. 

Everyone still looked at Angella as she carried a crying Adora in her arms; poorly. Angella looked like she could barely keep Adora’s feet off the ground. 

“Hope the show was enjoyable for you all,” she said right before leaving with Glimmer to the car. 

Back home Micah had pulled into the driveway less than ten-minutes after Angella and the girls arrived home. He noticed woodchips on the welcome mat before entering the house, just as he did, he could hear Angella yelling from upstairs and also the sound of crying. But not the crying of Glimmer. This was an unfamiliar cry.

_Adora?!_

He rushed upstairs to see what was going on. He came in at the end of the conversation.

Angella was standing in front of Adora while the little one was red-faced from tears and crying uncontrollably, snot coming from her nose and drooling a little.

“Tantrums of any kind are not tolerated, Adora! the way you acted was unacceptable and you will not be going to the park for a very long time” 

Adora just cried louder and coughed.

Angella turned to see her husband looking confused.

Angella pointed at Adora and then to the hallway in the direction of Glimmer’s bedroom.

“Glimma made her wear headgear because of her autism, she and her friends were poking fun at Adora’s condition and it caused a massive tempter tantrum from this one—” she points back to Adora. “She decided to run away from me and started rolling on the ground because I said we were leaving, I won't stand for temper tantrums, we didn’t with Glimmer and Adora is no exception!” Adora then grabbed some items of Adora’s desk “You're grounded for the weekend, no toys, no TV, and no drawing” she said and took Adora’s sketchpad. 

The blonde just laid down to cry more. 

Angella walked past Micah to go and yell at Glimmer some more.

Micah went over to Adora. The little girl flinched at the feeling of someone touching her. She trembled in fear.

“Hey, sweetheart tell daddy what happened?”

Angella then walked into Glimmer’s room; ready to snap. Glimmer didn’t fear her mother. She stood up and crossed her arms at her.

“Well,” Angella began “I hope you're happy with yourself, teasing Adora like that in front of all your friends, I really thought you were warming up to Adora, but instead you were taunting her”

Glimmer stomped her foot “I wasn’t being mean! You were! You hurt Adora’s feeling!”

Angella rolled eyes “Well, think what you want, no TV for the weekend, and no Tablet either”

Glimmer then jumped on to her bed and yelled to her “You’re the mean one mom!”

Before she could yell more, she saw Angella had Adora’s sketchpad. 

“That Adora’s. It's like her diary and all about her life” Glimmer commented before she turned back to lay on her bed. “She has sad stuff in there”

Angella frowned a little before exiting the room. Only before retconning her previous statement “No TV or table for tonight, we will talk more tomorrow”

Angella left her room and made her way over back to Adora’s room. Micah was still with her and she could hear the muffled talking and crying from the outside the door.

“I wasn’t trying to be bad! M—mommy and Glimmer were yelling, and I got scared, I wanted to show them I’m normal and I can play normally. I thought Glimmer wanted to be my friend, but she and mommy don’t like me. Mommy is never going to like me and it's not fair, I wish I never got adopted!” she heard Adora cry. 

Angella felt her heart sink. Hearing Adora dreads her and her new home life was heartbreaking, to say the least. she walked down the hall to her bedroom. Her eyes darted down at the sketchpad. 

She needed to better understand Adora. 


	4. Angella Vs. the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella feels like the world is against her in the incidents that took place at the park.

Her heart broke hearing her say it—_wishing she was never adopted_. It broke Angella to know she had made Adora feel that way. This was no bratty attitude spat but a painful plea of regret. Knowing she was still crying in Micah’s arms no less was even worse.

Micah was always the favorite parent. The comforting one, the loving one, and it made Angella jealous. Her stern and helicopter style of parenting was smothering to Glimmer; that and her work pulled her away from important things that Glimmer turned to Micah or her aunt for. Casta was loving and was looking forward to meeting Adora; as a child therapist, she was sweet and kind and specialized in autism and children with other mental health conditions. But, Angella was too proud to take advice or call her up and say she needed help with Adora—after an hour on the computer she came to the realization that Adora was having a sensory overload and not a temper tantrum, something she researched and knew the difference between on medical terms but failed as a parent to recognize it when it happened. Also, her verbiage with Glimmer on explaining autism was clearly not appropriate. All the guilt built up to pain in her stomach as she clutched her shirt and winced while sitting down at the table. Micah had just got off the phone from ordering pizza for the girls as a _“You’re not in trouble anymore” _dinner when he jested to his wife:

“Gotta poop?” he teased. Implying that her strained uncomfortable face implied constipation.

Angella snarled at him and defensively replied “No! and if I did, I wouldn’t make it news to you”

He chuckled and sat down next to her “You seem upset, more upset than earlier”

Angella moved her laptop screen over to Micah to show him what she was reading “Look, this article is on how punishing children with autism can lead to mental regression”

Micah looked slightly worried at her—her face was filled with panic. 

“Aren’t you the first one to tell people not to self-diagnosis through internet searches also I needed to let you know I called—”

Angella glared and slammed the computer shut “This is serious, I messed up! I made a massive error and judgment and now our—” she stopped herself as she realized she was getting choked up slightly. Her eyes watered and she tried her best to control her quivering bottom lip “She, she doesn’t know us enough to wish she was never adopted. We’re good people, she should be happier here, but instead, it feels like we’re… I’m! making her more miserable, she barely speaks, she’s timid and jumpy all the time, it’s almost like she’s in fear of us. I mean…. What am I to do? Should we get her institutionalized? Something is wrong with her and—” Before she could say anything else, her face dropped as she saw Glimmer standing in the doorway. Her face was clearly upset. 

“Glimma?” Her mother questioned, “What are you doing out of your room?”

Glimmer then walked over to be closer to her father “I wanna snack, we didn’t get to finish lunch,”

Micah made his way to the pantry and got two snacks for her and Adora. She thanked her father before giving her mother a dirty look before heading back upstairs. 

As much as Angella hated it, she couldn’t hold Glimmer to any disciplinary actions. She was equally as upset for her own reasons. 

When Glimmer got back upstairs, she went to her sister’s room to see if she wanted a snack. She figured this would make up for what happened at the park. 

When she opened the bedroom door, she saw Adora’s head was under her pillow and her bottom was up in the air like an ostrich. It would have been funny if Adora wasn’t sobbing. She sat on her bed and spoke “Adora? I brought you a snack,” Glimmer said placing it next to her.

Adora let out a whimpered and pleaded “Please don’t make fun of me in front of your friends anymore” before hiding her back in her pillows. 

Glimmer frowned and tabbed her lap to get her attention back; which only caused Adora to jolt away from her. 

“Adora, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, honest” 

Adora sat up and rubbed her eyes with her right arm. Glimmer noticed bite marks on her arm. She thought it was weird but didn’t want to comment on it. She already made Adora feel bad enough today. She didn’t need to hurt her feelings anymore. 

They talked for a bit. Adora just kept apologizing for what happened at the park; she explained she wanted to show mom she could play normal and all the yelling upset her. 

Glimmer then asked, “Mom thought your hearing was bad since you don’t really make eye contact, and you don’t look her in the eyes a lot,”

Adora sat up and shook her head and started to open her snack “I can hear lots of things like at the park I can hear the trees moving, the other parents’ phones, mommy’s keyboard for her computer. I know everyone’s talking and stuff, but I can’t always hear what they are saying” Adora said looking down and biting at the snack.

It clicked to Glimmer that Adora can hear very well but_ clearly_ too much. The two talked more about feelings and asked her curious questions about autism and what it felt like for her. 

The two were called downstairs for dinner. Adora was surprised to get dinner still after being punished. Typically, being punished in Sue’s house meant no dinner. 

While eating Angella noticed how shaken Adora seemed. Also, very thirsty as Adora stood up several times to refill her water cup by the fridge. She recognized by Adora’s slight rocking notion that she was self-stimulating possibly due to anxiety. Adora had he head down and only said thank you to her. She could tell her gaze was making Adora fidget in a more frantic motion. Her actions didn’t go unnoticed by anyone but due to sheer awkwardness, no one said anything and just kept to themselves and ate in silence. When it looked like Adora was settling down she just looked at them with caution before going upstairs. Angella found it odd that she didn’t eat much. Adora always seemed hungry. She didn’t ask for seconds unless someone offered it, but she could usually tell by her eyes that she was always wanting something to eat. She drank a lot of water. Seemly thirsty from all her crying earlier. 

Micah wanted to make her more comfortable by trying to play with her as he would Glimmer. He knocked on her door to see her just sitting on her bed. Remembering Angella took her sketch pad away and a few of her little pony figures she liked to play with. He wanted to raise her spirits after her wishing she was never adopted. He went into her room and saw her biting her arm. Something he had never seen her do before. In worry, he tried a different approach then what Angella would do and tried to make light of the situation by being funny. Or so he thought it was funny.

“Hey bites, want to play with daddy?” He asked. 

Adora looked up at him and instantly looked insulted and slightly hurt by that. She looked down at her arm and way from him. 

“I’m still on punishment,” she said before scooting to the corner of her twin-size bed. In hopes that would give Micah the sense to leave her alone. 

But it didn’t “Come, one sweetie, I want to cheer you up” he said extending his arms out to her; hoping that she would jump into them the way Glimmer usually does. Instead, Adora looked scared. Unknowing to him that this was one of her abuses she would take by the older boys at the foster home. They would pick up the smaller kids and body slam them on the floor for fun. She looked up at how big Micah was and fear set in. She covered her face with her hands. He thought she was being playful. 

“C’mon sweetie, get up” the cheerful voice didn’t make Adora feel better. She didn’t want to play with him, she was afraid he was going to hurt her. He reached out playfully to try and tickle her side but that garnered an instant scream of “NOOOO!” and she threw herself on the floor. Hitting her head but still doing her best cover her face as she went into the fetal position. 

Micah stepped back in panic. Angella and Glimmer peaked in only to not know what was going on. She sobbed on the floor as Micah backed away. 

“Sorry, sweetie, I didn’t mean to upset you,”

Angella questioned, “What happened?”

Micah walked out and whispered “I tried to play with her, and I freaked her out when I tickled her”

Angella gave him a scowl “Micah, she has sensory issues, she can’t be touched like that with her autism”

Adora rocked herself and cried louder when she heard that word. She had autism and no one ever really explained to her what it really was. All she knew is Sue would smack her if she did certain things and should run for comfort with Lonnie and Catra. She had habits and quirks that Sue valued as Adora would clean, do homework, and play quietly with the other kids. In this house it was different. Her validation was gone since this house was always cleaned and they had a house cleaner that worked on the weekends. She couldn’t do chores to impress Angella since they were already done. Her being quiet in a house of loud kids was gone since her house was always dead silent. Her fun was also gone since Glimmer barely played with her and she only had herself to play with now. Originally being asked to play alone was a punishment and Adora felt like she was being punished for three weeks now. 

Sunday was just as awkward for the family. Adora was saddened by this because she knew it was her fault. She didn’t sleep well so she made herself stay in bed all day to avoid the family. To her dismay, she ended up taking a nap when Casta came and took Glimmer for the afternoon. She was devastated when she woke up to see Glimmer was gone. Even though she didn’t play with her much it still hurt knowing that Glimmer got to go somewhere fun while Adora had to stay home. She felt like Angella was punishing even more for what happened at the park. 

Angella felt guilty when she saw how upset Adora was. Adora just went back to her room. Angella offered “Do you want to watch TV, Adora?”

Adora shook her head. Angella still didn’t want to see the child upset; Adora acted like a kicked puppy and that bothered her. 

“Is there something you would like to do?” 

Adora wanted to go outside and play, preferably go to the park. But she was afraid to ask such as thing after yesterday. 

“Can I have my drawing book?” she asked. Fidgeting with her hands. 

Angella nodded and went into her office to get it. She gave Adora back her pony figures. 

All Angella felt was an unmeasurable amount of guilt. She had no clue how to connect with Adora and after showing her short-tempered side to her, she felt she had taken a massive step backward in Adora feeling welcomed.

Micah decided after his encounter with Adora last night he would golf for the day. Casta took Glimmer out to the arcade and for ice cream and got to hear all about the news in her sisters-in-law’s house. She never referred to it as Micah’s house, as Angella dominated everything she had a hand in. 

Glimmer in between licks of ice cream “She’s weird, she not bad, but she’s weird, she cries a lot, bites herself, and can’t match her clothes. I think mommy’s going send her to that place where all the villains in Batman go”

Casta raised a brow and took a sip of her shake “The asylum?”

Glimmer nodded “Yeah, that place. Their padded walls and straight jackets. I think they’re going to put Adora in one so she will stop biting herself” 

Casta was mildly mortified at how Glimmer knew this and wanted to believe that Angella wouldn’t be so ignorant as she talks about these sensitive matters freely in front of a nine-year-old like this 

“Did mommy really say that?”

Glimmer looked down “I overheard her talk to daddy. She said they might but, in the hospital, because mommy doesn’t know what to do with her”

Casta frowned. 

_Oh, of course! Angella you don’t know what to do?! It's not like you have a sister-in-law that’s a therapist or anything!_

The conversation kept taking a deeper and darker turn. Angella and Micah were apparently never around each other, let alone Glimmer and Adora. Micah and Angella clearly had stuff going on and it didn’t help that Glimmer needed attention as well as Adora. Casta felt that the adoption system failed her by not making Micah and Angella take any classes on raising autistic children. They must have assumed since Angella is a doctor and that was good enough. But Angella is a surgeon! She wouldn’t know a damn thing about autism. 

When driving back to the house, Angella made it obvious she didn’t want her staying long. She only got to say hi to Adora before being almost pushed out. 

In secret this caused a fight between Micah and Angella in private when the girls were sleeping. 

When Monday finally came, Adora was happy to get a chance to leave the prison that was her room. She was sad to know she had to go to school late because the social worker was coming. She didn’t like her social worker. Neither did Angella; she felt Octavia was too casual and unprofessional to be in her role. 

While sitting on the couch Angella asked Adora. 

“Did you want to talk to her in private?” 

Adora shook her head “No, not really”

Adora then nervously asked, “Are you going to tell her I was bad Saturday?”

Angella looked forward “You weren’t bad, darling. But we should talk about it”

Adora looked down at her hands in her lap. Fighting tears 

Angella didn’t want to make her cry again. She felt awful like she was making her hurt this bad. 

Octavia rang the doorbell and Angella let her in. 

She commented on how nice the house was and asked her routine questions. Is Adora going to school? is she well behaved in school? are there any issues in school or at home?

Adora answered them in an unsettling and absent-minded way. As if she was trained to just say.

“I’m good, I like my house, I go to school, I like my new friends”

Angella felt it was forced and fake. Something she would never ask Adora to do or say and Octavia just shrugged and noted it in her tablet.

“Good and Angella? How is Adora?” 

Adora gave her a worried look.

Angella signed and took Adora little hand into her own. Something she has never down before and Adora instantly tensed.

“Adora had a sensory overload at the park Saturday and she has been very sensitive since then, I was wondering if you had suggestions on the therapist in the local area for her, to assist with her adjustment”

Octavia questioned “You mean for the whole family?” then looked to see Adora had her head down and trying her best not to cry.

Octavia then stated “She was a sensitive kid in Sue’s care, I can always try to set up a meeting with Sue and you to talk together, the best therapist I know is Casta Angeles; she’s great and takes on new cases all the time”

Angella deadpanned “Casta is my sister-in-law”

Octavia snorted “Wow, really? Small world. Well, if she can’t see her then I would recommend seeing sue”

Adora’s head shot up “Do I get to see Catra again?” Adora beamed. It was the happiest she had seen her in days. 

Octavia and Angella gave each other a cautious look before Angella replied with “We will have to see with Sue”

Octavia gave Angella an email with Sue’s information on it so she could get in connect with her. 

The week went on somewhat smoothly. Adora was still timid. The school sent Angella an email saying that Adora refused to play during recess and chose to just walk around in the grass alone. Adora was still avoiding them. 

Angella’s only insight into Adora’s mind was the sketchpad. Something she would peek into while Adora wasn’t around to see what she would draw.

Angella realized fairly quick It was basically a diary and most drawings were of her being sad or missing something. 

_Catra, hotdogs, toys,_ _and some other indistinguishable things_, and all this made Angella guilty. She couldn’t force Adora to talk and any time she tried to push Adora to be more vocal; Adora would start to stammer her words and stim. 

Sue finally got back to her later in the week and agreed to see Angella on the condition that Adora couldn’t come. Angella didn’t want to give Adora that detail and just told them she was going out for a bit. 

Angella would have to drive to the other side of town to meet her. She actually had never been to the foster house before. She had met Adora at the Child family service center for their meetings. 

Once she arrived at the house, she looked at it with dread. 

A worn-down blue house, shades are drawn, garage open and filled with junk and she could hear the sounds of children playing in the back of the house. The area didn’t look so pleasant. 

She knocked on the door and heard some panicked whispers could be heard from the other side of the door. A young a with green-dyed hair opened the door; he reeked of cigarettes and had a pot leaf sweatshirt on. 

“Yeah?” he asked. 

Angella gave him a look at cleared her throat “I’m Dr. Angella Brighten, I’m here to see Sue Weaver”

He shrugged and waved for her to come in “SUE!!!” he yelled. “That lady is here!”

She heard the sound of a crying kid from upstairs and then the booming voice of what she assumed was Sue.

“Tell her I will be down in a minute. Is the patio table clean?”

“Yeah!”

“Good, now go watch the kids outside”

He then waved for Angella to follow him further into the house. 

She dreaded what was ahead. 

She sat down and watched the boy sit away from her as he watched the little kids outside. Four of them played. No shoes on, in the grass. They looked un-kept. Their hair was messing, and their clothes looked dingy. The house didn’t look all the pleasant nor smelled that pleasant either. When Sue arrived from downstairs. Angella examined her. Tan skin, her eyes looked tired, frizzy black hair. She looked like a woman who was completely over the concept of dress to impress. Angella looked at her and then down at her lap. Something about Sue’s gaze made her uneasy. Sue was not impressed with Angella. She looked down and saw an overdressed diva with an expensive purse and had no interest in her. 

“So, Adora is giving you a hard time?” Sue began as she sat across from Angella. She lit a cigarette without asking if Angella was alright with the smoke. 

Angella shifted in her seat. “Adora is not a bad child,” Angella defended.

“Then why are you here?” Sue retorted. Seeming annoyed. “I’m sure you can understand I’m a busy woman. Doctors aren’t the only ones who have schedules Y’know”

Angella placed her hands on the table and slight wafted the smoke around her “Considering we are both busy women I can assure you I’m not here to waste your time. Adora is having a difficult time adjusting to this change and as someone who raised her, I like your fair input on her routine and how you managed with her autism”

Sue scoffed before taking another puff from her cigarette. “I never believed that diagnoses; the girl was a little off sometimes, but I just took that as a side effect of being in a car accident at an early age. She has her quirks but under a routine and discipline she was fine. She much better behaved than most of these kids” she said pointing her cigarette to the children playing outside. 

Angella asked, “So Adora had no sensory routines or special treatment?”

Sue raised a brow “No, she’s not retarded. I never treated her like a retard. I don’t treat any child like that. Hell, most of my kids have mental health issues” she pointed above them “Her little friend Carlotta upstairs has O.D.D. and ADHD, most of the kids are on meds, Adora only needed two meds and she’s a fine kid”

Angella questioned “Carlotta is Catra, right?”

“Yes, I assume Adora talks about her? They were close. Maybe too close for young ladies at this age”

Angella looked unsure of what she was implying. “They were best friends” Angella offered.

Sue nodded “Maybe some puppy love. The two were inseparable, they shared a bunk bed, and Catra seemed to be the most comforting to Adora when she had bad days. The two would talk like an old married couple. It was slightly cute but given the fact that Catra is here and Adora isn’t hasn’t been a pleasant experience for me. Her behavior has been terrible without her”

Angella then offered “We can set up a playdate for them and—”

Sue cut her off with her hand up in defense “No that’s not fair for either of them. You think it’s right for Adora to come around here or for Catra to come to your house. See Adora’s new happy life and come back to this and be okay?” Sue said pointing up at the ceiling again. “The girls will forget each other in a few months, they all do. Every kid I’ve had who says they will visit never do. But with those two it’s best they stop seeing each other”

Angella frowned “But that doesn’t help either of them”

Sue shrugged “Well, the kids sleep in warm beds and don’t go hungry, what else are we to do?”

Angella glared “Give them a happy childhood?”

Sue laughed “They’re orphans! Nothing is going to make them happy!”

“Shouldn’t we try?”

“Is this why you hear? To find out ways to spoil Adora by figuring out what she didn’t have living here”

“No, I want to know her routines and what did make her happy so she can feel more comfortable in her new home” a slight slip of weakness came through Angella’s voice. 

Sue grinned at what was clear desperation and jumped on it “Oh? So, there is trouble in paradise? A doctor can’t figure out what makes a little girl happy? How odd, I thought you already had a child”

“I do,” Angella said. Her body getting tense.

“So, you can’t figure what makes her happy, she’s a simple child. She’s affectionate, to those she likes, she’s timid, deathly afraid of the dark, lactose intolerant hate pork for some reason…. She eats her vegetables, she likes snacks and juice boxes, hates loud noises, and is quick to tears when she feels left out,” Sue laughed to herself “She cried one time after I sent Lonnie and Catra in timeout for fighting over Barbie dolls. She felt like it was an exclusive thing and decided to put herself in timeout with them because she didn’t want to be alone. She hates that, you know, being alone”

She could read by Angella’s discomfort that something was going on at her home. Something might be wrong with Adora. 

She took this as another moment to throw shade and guilt on to Angella. “But I mean. What is to be expected, right? You saw the prettiest little when a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes in the poor part of town and decided she was too good to be here” she paused for a moment to see Angella’s eyes narrow in defense. “You took her away from her friends and school and just like magic she is supposed to love you and everything you do, as a family like yours; you are a doctor and your husband being a lawyer…. I doubt you have much time for your children now, do you? how could you? with all your work. I bet Adora just sits and waits for you, just to find out your too tired to give her a moment of your time.”

Sue was satisfied to see the rage build up in Angella.

Now fuming Angella spoke with her accent heavier than desired. “I do make time for my children! Micah and I are very focused on the girl’s needs. We just want to do what’s best for Adora”

Sue then asked “What makes you think you aren’t. Clearly, with your salary, you can give her anything”

Angella would regret to admit this but she did to her. In the hopes that Sue would be more understanding.

“I am unfamiliar with autism; I did my best to explain it to my daughter and that made matters more troubling. Adora has become distant from us and I am concerned for her mental state if I can’t pull her out of this emotional withdrawal. I can’t have her acting like this, people will think we’re neglecting her and us—”

Sue held her hand up “It. Is. Neglect. You singled her out and now she is afraid. I taught her to behave and she will be rewarded. It doesn’t sound like she can do much with you. I mean how do you expect an orphaned child with autism to adjust to your way of life in a matter of weeks?”

Angella felt her mouth go dry. The only thing that echoed in her head was when Adora wished she was never adopted. 

Sue then stood up “Maybe its not Adora that needs help, then”

She then signaled for Angella to follow her. Angella walked with her upstairs and Sue started to talk to her again “Adora likes barbies, playdough, cars, animal figures, horses—that girl can’t get enough of horses. She likes macaroni and cheese, uses lactose milk, and hot dogs and chicken nuggets. She likes apples and carrots the most when it comes to fruits and vegetables and she has a hyper side of her when she happy stims. She always wanted to get on a sports team, and she can play outside for hours if you let her” she then opened a bedroom door. Inside were two young tan girls. Lonnie and Catra she assumed.

“Girls, this lady is Angella she is Adora’s new mom. I just wanted her to see what her old room looked like” 

Angella gave a kind way to the girls. Lonnie was polite, but from what she could tell by the freckled face girl with the mismatch keys was less than happy to see her. 

“What do we say, girls?” Sue asked.

“Hi,” they both said in unison. 

Catra then asked, “Is Adora coming back?” Catra asked.

Sue answered with “No, she isn’t her new mom just wanted to stop by”

Catra then shot Angella a glare “I want my friend back”

Sue then moved Angella aside and started to close the door “You can’t get everything you want, Catra”

This visit had taken every uncomfortable turn imaginable. 

Thankfully it was over. 

Heading back home she was relieved to see her family again. 

Her plan was simple. Go home. Give Adora lots of affection and apologize for Saturday; which she had still failed to properly do yet. When she arrived home, she was greeted by Micah. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips before Glimmer came from behind her to give her a hug. 

She looked around “Where Adora?” Angella asked.

Micah opened his mouth to answer but was stopped by the sound of his sister walking in the door.

“I’m here for Adora,” Casta said in a bit of a sing-song voice. “Where is my new little niece?”

Just then Adora came downstairs with her backpack. “I’m here” she replied sheepishly. Casta smiled at her and placed her hands on her knees “Are you ready to spend a fun weekend with aunty?”

Adora nodded “Good, now say bye to everyone,” Casta said. 

Angella was completely thrown off guard by all of this. She and Micah never discussed plans to have Adora spend the weekend with Casta. 

Glimmer gave her a hug goodbye while Micah leaned down and kissed her forehead. When Adora saw Angella just gave a half-smile and turned her body away to face Casta. “We can leave now?” Adora asked.

Angella felt the instant sting of rejection from her adopted daughter. 

She did her best to keep a brave face, but as soon as Casta left and Glimmer went back to her room she bawled her eyes out to her husband. 

Micah held her on the couch to comfort her “I take it the meeting with Sue wasn’t so good?” he asked.

Angella sobbed and shook her head “No, she made me feel terrible like I did something wrong for adopting her,” Angella sat up and sniffled “I’m trying to do what’s right and everywhere I go I feel like I’m a bad mother. Just when I thought I was: Adora confirmed it by not even hugging me” her voice cracked, and she reached for a tissue.

Micah tried to remind Angella that Adora can be limited by her affection. But Angella just sulked “Still, she hates me and she should,” Angella started to count down all the thing she did wrong “I should’ve sought out more help, I should have taken a class on this, I should of let her have a night light, I should’ve explained autism better, I don’t even know why I was so fragile with her! Even Octavia said Adora’s diagnosis was recent, so I don’t know why I went overboard on everything!” she laid her head on Micah’s lap. Still going on about her failed parenting.

“I bought her all those stupid sensory toys; I should have gotten her better things she likes. She’s an eight-year-old girl, she likes barbies, I should have just gotten ten of those, I’m the worst mother ever” she cried.

Micah rubbed the side of her face “No, you’re not. If anything, YOUR mom is the worst mom ever, she sent you catholic boarding school; you were basically at Hogwarts with nuns and less fun and more ass beatings” he joked. His dark humor was greeted with a smack on the leg.

They laughed a bit at that. Angella sat up and Micah kissed her cheek.

“Everything is going to get better, Angie. Adora is off to play with horses all weekend and while she’s away, we can make her room up for her. Things are going to be fine”

While Micah offered comfort to his wife on the other side of town Sue had managed to make an eight-year-old Catra bawl her eyes out. 

Catra cried loudly “S-she didn’t bring Adora! why?” she cried. Trying to control her breathing as she sobbed.

Sue just patted her head “I don’t know Carlotta….. I suggested you two start having playdates, but she said _no_, some adults can be cruel like that” 

Catra had tears run down her face as she sniffled “Will I ever see Adora again?” she cried. Sue gently wiped her face. She patted the girl’s shoulder “I don’t know child, but I will see what I can do, now go to bed, okay” 

Catra nodded and walked away. Kyle and Lonnie looked on from upstairs. Lonnie took Catra by the hand walked her to the bedroom.

Sue smiled to herself as she took out her phone and began dialing a number. It rang but there was no answer. She started to leave her voicemail.

“Hello Octavia, I know your not going to be able to respond this right away but please call me when you do, I had just found out some alarming information in regards to Adora’s wellbeing and I think we should have a DCYF investigation on the Brighten family” she hung up and smirked at her phone. She looked over to the laptop. She had it opened up to Angella’s LinkedIn page and thought to herself. 

_Do you think you could come and take away one of my paychecks and get away with it? Think again, Angella. _


	5. Auntie's House

Adora was nervous and excited. She hugged her backpack close to her while they drove out of town. She liked her auntie. She heard so many nice things about her. Auntie was quick to hug her and ask her about her favorite toys and games. 

Part of Adora was still scared. What if she did something bad or messed something up and her auntie didn’t like her anymore. She wasn’t left to dwell on her thoughts long enough as Casta pulled them into a barn styled house. Casta lived in the more rural part of the State and the hour or so drive Adora was able to see cows and horses on her way to Casta’s home.

Casta opened her door to let Adora out. “C’mon sweetie. Let’s get you settled in.” 

She took Adora upstairs to show her where she will be staying Casta dubbed it the _niece suite_ and Adora was able to place her belongings down and walk with Casta downstairs.

_Now to get to know her_

“Adora, sweetie, tell me what Is your favorite meal?” her aunt asked.

Adora wasn’t sure if it was a trick question. Ever since she moved in with her new family; they ate food that Adora didn’t like and wasn’t used to. She was afraid to tell Angella she didn’t like anything, so she ate it out of survival. She always felt hungry. She always wanted more food. To her luck, Angella never denied them snacks. She could eat apples and orange slices after dinner if she still wanted food. She missed chicken nuggets and ramen noodles but once she had mistakenly told Angella what foods she liked, only to be scoffed at and told the foods she likes are disgusting and unhealthy. 

“Mommy has us eat vegetables and rice; I eat what mommy tells me to eat” a good response. Adora thought. She knew this is what an adult would want to hear. 

Casta knew deflections of fear when she saw them. Casta smiled at her and asked again “But what is your most favorite thing to eat for dinner? What do you like the most and you haven’t had to eat in a while?”

Adora looked down and answered meekly. “M-my favorite was hot dogs and mac n’ cheese,”

Before Casta could suggest making it; Adora then added.

“Angella says it’s disgusting because it’s procced foods”

Casta took the mental note that Adora switched to call Angella by her first name instead of mom at that. To her, that indicated distance and possible resentment. 

“Well, sweetie you are allowed to like things that others don’t. No one should make you feel bad for liking different foods” she assured her. 

Adora fidget with the hem of her shirt. Casta then took the girl's hands into her own said warmly “This weekend is all about you, Adora. I want you to have a fun time, okay?”

*

Back at the Brighten household. Word had made its way around that Adora was having a good time with Casta. Adora got to see a pony, ate her favorite foods, they went out for ice cream, and Casta had made a fort in the living room so they could have a sleepover party. Glimmer wished she was there too but was mature enough to know that this was Adora’s time to get to know auntie and it was only fair for Adora to have this time alone. 

Angella was working on her laptop. She heard her phone buzz and physically felt sick when she read Casta’s text messages. 

**Casta (Friday 5:15 pm):** Hey just found out all of Adora’s favorite foods. 

**Casta (Friday 5:20 pm):** I suggest not telling her that you to find her choice in food “disgusting”. Keep in mind Sue had to feed over ten kids night so procced and cheap foods were probably the only option they had.

**Casta (Friday 5:25 pm):** Keep in mind autistic kids go in trends and routines. Eating the same foods for all meals is common. Ensuring they are nutritional much easier than it seems. You introduce any new foods to her, and she doesn’t like any of them. This is why she never asks for seconds and always seems to be hungry for snacks. 

Angella stopped working and went into her room to sulk. Her mind raced. Has Adora been going hungry? Her teachers did comment that boys like to bring extra snacks for Adora. Are her families eating habits not working for Adora? she felt her throat go dry at the thought of possibly making a child sick or hungry. 

She stayed in her room for the rest of the night. Micah had gotten Glimmer ready for bed. He made his way into the master bedroom to see his wife; still dressed laying on the bed with her forearm covering her eyes. 

“Honey?” he asked.

Angella just lifted her phone for him to see. He took it from her and asked, “Something wrong?”

“Read the last text your sister sent me”

**Casta (Friday 8:15 pm):** It doesn’t matter how “safe” your house is. If an 8-year-old wants a night light for her room, she shouldn’t be discouraged from it. She has her reasons as to why. When she was in foster care the older kids would scare the smaller kids. For children with autism, some kids have an immense fear of the darkness because they think they see things at night. Telling her that the house is “safe” isn’t good enough.

Angella uncovered her eyes; she had been crying at some point during the night; he could tell by the puffiness around her eyes. She defensibly told him “I thought ensuring Adora this house was safe would put her at ease; instead she has been anxiously riddled for weeks and never mentioned anything. Suddenly Casta is the hero and I’m the villain. I’m just trying to do what is right for Adora, I don’t want her to turn into those people who hide behind their ailments! I want her to be okay. I’m a good mother!”

Was she? What if despite being a capable provider, she was not the best fit for Adora. It would explain all of Adora’s anxious tendencies around her. Is Adora afraid of her? Does she not like her? Originally, she feared Glimmer wouldn’t get along with her but ever since the helmet incident, Glimmer has been overly protective and more sensitive to autism awareness and went as far as to go and spend time in the special ed. Room with the severely autistic. She only knew that because she came home with a gold star from school about being extra helpful in other classes. 

That night all she could think about was how much Adora must be hurting. She poked in Adora’s room and looked around. 

She never decorated her room or anything. She kept it fairly plain as to what Angella assumed was best for her. Adora was an organized child, her clothes were hung up and folded where they needed to be, and her bed was made neatly. This was most likely a trained behavior through Sue because Glimmer was not an organized child in the slightest. 

Angella took the absence of Adora to be nosy in her room. She looked through her drawings. It was a diary in drawing for Adora. she dated pictures and wrote tiny descriptions. A majority of the drawing was from her time in foster care. Some drawings were happy ones. Others and a majority related to Catra were sad. 

Adora wrote:

_The bigger boys were mean to Catra and Kyle. The big boy pushed me, and I cried. Sue yelled at the big boys and punished them. _

Angella grew suspicious at this incident. Sue had the nerve to claim Angella was neglectful, but here it was written that the older children would torment the younger children. 

She drew a new picture in a sketchbook before she left. A picture of her crying with a broken heart hovering over her and black scribbles all around her. _This was new_ Adora had done her best to avoid Angella all week. _She drew this about how she felt recently_ Adora didn’t want to be near her. She didn’t like her. Sue would hurt her physically or make Adora out to be the better-behaved child to make the others kid gang up or exclude Adora, due to her fear of abuse; Adora was very well behaved. Here she didn’t have a chance. Angella made her feel so out of place and bad. Every little thing she did was autistic, and she hated it. She hated her. 

She hated Angella. 

Angella knew she messed up. She looked at a few of her more recent drawings and everything that depicted Angella was of her frowning or looking angry. Adora wrote _messed up my clothes. I’m still not good._

Another entry was a drawing of the kitchen table and Adora writing above it:_ I can’t cut my food right. Glimmer laughed at me. Mom was mad at me again. _

In truth, Angella was mad at Glimmer. Not Adora. when she saw Adora lift her steak with a fork and try to eat it whole she did scold her. Once she realized Adora couldn’t use her steak knife correctly, she took her plate in annoyance and cut it for her; all while chastising her for not knowing how to do it. In Adora’s eyes, Angella must have been furious with her. She was mad at Glimmer for snorting out a laugh and teasing Adora for not knowing how to use a steak knife. 

The diary got much darker as she flipped and saw a page with nothing but black scribbles and red writing. Phrases like _“Stupid dumb baby!” “Your new family hates you!” “Autism is bad” “Mommy will never like you” “match your clothes right stupid!” _

This horrified Angella. 

Adora internally thinks bad things about her and she’s only a child. In Angella’s mind, she just a baby. Before she could snoop around anymore more, Glimmer poked in. 

“Uh, mom?”

Angella jumped a bit when she saw her daughter out of bed. Angella composed herself and asked “Sweetie? Why are you awake?”

Glimmer shuffled her bunny slipper feet over to Angella and hugged her “I miss Adora” she sniffled. 

Angella frowned “I miss her too, darling” 

Glimmer pulled away to wipe her eyes “Can we make her room nicer? I know all the toys and stuff she likes”

Angella rubbed the side of her face “I think that is a lovely idea. We should do that tomorrow” 

Saturday morning was an early start for them. First target and then another playdate. 

_Great. _

After the last time of Angella dragging Adora off the playground and snapping at the onlooking parents; she knew she wasn’t a welcomed presence. It didn’t help that just like last time she had some work to do. She worked on her laptop and heard the faint whispering of Mermista and Perfuma’s other talking. She didn’t dare look at them. At work, she was their boss. The feared Dr. Brighten who had a reputation of being hard to work with. Outside of work, she was just the bitch no one liked. What made it worse was the subtle jabs from Hanna-Marie about what a lovely girl Glimmer was and how much she was like Micah and what a nice guy he was. 

The tension was finally too much for her and just closed her laptop and called for Glimmer. 

Without protest Glimmer left with her. Now that she felt like the lowest person on earth, she looked down to see she had ignored Casta’s texts all day. 

**Casta (Saturday 8:00 am):** She likes McDonald's.

**Casta (Saturday 9:15 am):** Did you ban her from playing at parks? I took her to the park near my house and she freaked out saying she was still in trouble. She was afraid to play because she thought you would get mad at her. 

**Casta (Saturday 9:25 am):** Calmed her down. She’s playing now. You can’t be ambiguous with her on punishments. She needs to be timed. If she is grounded, you need to set it up for several days or hours. She thought last Sunday she was grounded and that’s why she stayed in her room all day. You need to check in on her. She needs to be checked on more. Solitude was a form of punishment in foster care for her. I know your not a hands-on mom, but Adora has different needs emotionally.

_Way to make me terrible Casta! _

The texts stopped for a while until she got a few more texts around lunchtime and what a great time Adora was having. She wanted to be happier for her, but it still felt like a jab knowing that Casta had gotten Adora out of her shell in less than 48-hours and Angella couldn’t get the girl to have a conversation with her in almost four weeks. 

**Casta (Saturday noon):** She loves horses!

**Casta (Saturday 1:20 pm):** She’s an athletic kid. She should go into sports.

**Casta (Saturday 3:30 pm):** She’s a really good artist.

**Casta (Saturday 5:05 pm):** If you want to reduce built-up energy and prevent sensory overloads and tantrums you need to let her have time daily to let out energy. It’s a common need in adolescence with autism. The phase will go die out when she’s a preteen. 

**Casta (Saturday 5:20 pm):** Also, tell Micah to get over the yard thing. You have a giant ass backyard and two daughters. Set something up so they can play outside more. Perfect grass doesn’t mean much if no one can enjoy it. 

Angella showed Micah that last text. Hoping to get some type of angered response of Casta’s words he agreed with it. Saying, “Glimmer never showed interest in playing in the yard, but if this is something Adora wants then we can always get one of those swing sets for kids. I think they’d like that. Right?”

Angella groaned and dropped her phone on the bed “What is the point!” Angella snapped. 

Micah snapped back “What is your problem? We need to do what best for her!”

Angella then snapped back “What if we aren’t!?”

Micah didn’t retort as he saw his wife sob. 

The rest of the night was quiet. Despite the shopping Angella and Glimmer did together, it ended up being Micah who set up Adora’s room for her. Angella couldn’t get the thought out of her mind of the thought of Adora hating her and her new life. 

*

Sunday morning was upon them and Angella went to the gym early before church. Just her luck to have the sermon about the adoption; from the Pharaoh's daughter adopting Moses and the story retelling Jacob and the adoption and of grandchildren and to through in some more morality and heartache the Pastor mentioned that Jesus was technically adopted as he is the son of God and not the biological son of Joseph.

_Of all Sundays to be about Adoption!_

She looked around and saw some single couples and small children, some older women all dressed up in their Sunday clothes. Angella sat in the middle row by herself. She looked down at her bible. Micah and she both were Episcopal and decided to raise Glimmer in the Episcopal faith. Neither made the effort to go to church as much as Angella. Micah took his day of rest as a day to golf at the country club. Glimmer would rather be at the country club youth group then Sunday school. Angella didn’t like this one bit but never forced it. If anything, it was a breather away from her family. Just thinking like that made her feel awful. She loved her child and husband. Her Micah was charming, sweet, funny, and an all-around good guy. Glimmer was sweet, smart, and destined to be someone amazing. Not to mention her daughter was adorable! Adora was too. Adora was sweet and polite. She knew the timid child was capable of being happy. She felt a wave of sadness hit her when she thought of Adora telling Micah she wished she wasn’t adopted.

After the service was over Angella saw her phone Casta’s newest text. 

**Casta (Sunday 9:00 am):** Adora cried this morning. She is upset to go back home. 

**Casta (Sunday 9:10 am):** When is Micah coming to get her?

Angella couldn’t allow herself to ignore the texts any further as she replied

**Angie (Sunday 9:14 am):** I’m picking up Adora.

**Casta (Sunday 9:20 am)** Okay.

Angella started to make the drive over. She didn’t know what to expect. She knew Adora was not looking forward to going home. 

Once she arrived Casta had Adora play upstairs. She wanted to talk to Angella in private for a minute. Sitting in Casta’s kitchen Angella laced he purse down on the chair next to her and sighed before asking “She had a good time all week? I saw all your texts”

Casta sat across from her and gave a cold reply “You didn’t bother to text back”

Angella moved some loose strands of hair out of her face before answering “I couldn’t find any way to respond,”

Casta rolled her eyes “You’re a doctor. You write hundreds of pages of thesis statements and arguments against mental health and medications and **_you_** couldn’t reply to a text on your daughter having a good tie at the park?”

Angella looked down in shame “It’s different. This has been something I haven’t handled well,” she looked up in Casta’s eyes. “You know I only want what’s best for her”

Casta looked at her with a saddened expression.

“What?” Angella asked.

Her dark-haired sister leaned back a little and placed her hands on the table “I get this a lot from parents like you. I work closely with child family services. Children from foster care and group homes go through severe trauma at an early age. Adora’s late diagnosis is clear of that”

Angella offered “When they made her see a doctor, they assumed she had bad hearing. From what her old pediatrician said was they had her wear hearing aids as a child and that only made her hearing worse as she had massive headaches. It wasn’t until she official moved in with us was when the diagnosis of autism came in”

Casta gave a sincere look “She’s a good girl”

Angella frowned “She is. I love her very much…..”

Casta tensed as she saw Angella’s eyes shine from the tears starting to form. 

Her sister-in-law grabbed some tissues for her. 

Angella apologized “Sorry, I’ve been crying all weekend over this. This whole thing about Adora. I know she’s unhappy with her living situation,”

Casta asked, “Do you know?”

Angella blew her nose in her tissue “It’s because of me. I make her feel bad. I didn’t know I was making her feel bad. I thought I was protecting her. Making her feel safe. Instead, she’s been miserable this whole time. She wrote in her little sketchpad about how much she thinks I don’t like her and how she has shame in her autism”

Casta offered “Do you know why she has shame in her autism? She doesn’t know much about it; all she knows is you treat her differently and you hurt her feel bad when you described it to Glimmer as Adora being slow. I know you don’t know this, but Glimmer wasn’t all that nice to her for a while. That changed recently but Adora is still hurt by it. She’s afraid. She’s a paranoid child”

Angella bit her lip at this. “I know she’s been on edge. I just need help getting her to a better place”

Casta gave her a stern look “Do you want help?”

Angella nodded “Yes, of course, I will do whatever it takes to make my daughter happy”

Casta took Angella’s hands and told: “I will help you with all of this Angella, but you are going to have to trust me, handle my criticism and be open-minded to all of this, okay?”

“Fine.” 

Casta nodded. “Good,” she moved her hands away and lifted her head to call for Adora. “Adora? sweetie, come downstairs please”

The two heard the tiny feet of an eight-year-old rush downstairs “Yes auntie?” she asked happily. She turned the corner of the kitchen to see Angella and she physical jumped. An uneasy look came over her as she looked at her aunt with a pleading look. 

Lord an only imagine what is going through her head. Adora walked over to Casta and reached her arms out for a hug. Casta obliged and this made Angella a little jealous. Adora hadn’t seen her in days and Adora wouldn’t even hug her. 

Casta rubbed her back and informed her “Mommy and I have lots of plans for next weekend when you come over, okay? Mommy’s going to take you home soon”

Adora was saddened by this news and hugged her aunt tighter. 

Angella stood up and tried to give Adora a hug; only to be rejected by the girl as she ran upstairs crying. 

This hurt Angella. Casta gestured to her “Go upstairs and ask her why she is crying. Then give her some time to respond. Try to hug or hold her hand, but if she doesn’t let you, don’t force her to”

Angella made her way upstairs and saw Adora sitting on the bed with her backpack on her lap and her crying loudly into it. 

Angella sat on the bed with her. Adora didn’t dare look at her. She feared Angella’s scowl and was afraid of her just grabbing her and dragging her downstairs. She knew she needed to stop crying but she couldn’t. 

Angella leaned down to kiss the top of her head and asked, “Why are you crying?” the question was soft and calm. Adora still couldn’t stop crying. Angella waited for her to responded and Adora cried out “I don’t want to leave aunties house, I like auntie, I want to stay”

She was starting to control her sobbing. 

Angella hugged her from the side and Adora didn’t protest to this. Angella agreed with her “I like auntie too sweetheart. You will get to see her next weekend”

Adora stopped her crying. She let her head rest on Angella. Her mother cupped her face and told her “Glimmer and daddy have surprises for you home. They missed you. Do you want to see them?”

Adora mustered out “uh-huh”

She took her hand and walked with her downstairs.

After saying goodbye, it was a long car ride home. She looked in her rearview mirror to see Adora had fallen asleep during the car ride. 

Once they got home, they were happily greeted by Micah and Glimmer. She gave them both hugs and Glimmer showed Adora all the news things they got for her room. Angella sat down with Micah at the couch and talked with him. All while hearing Glimmer happily tell Adora about all her toys that she and mommy picked out. 

While girls remained upstairs; Angella spoke with her husband “Your sister wants me to come over next weekend with Adora”

“That’s good” he offered as she wrapped an arm around her shoulder. 

Angella sighed and nestled her head into her husbands’ neck. She hoped things would get better in her household. 

While sitting on the couch she missed the phone call from Octavia. She left a voicemail.

_Hi, Angella. This is Octavia. Listen….. I need to stop by tomorrow with my supervisor and ask you and the family some questions. Sorry for the short notice. Please call me back when you can._


	6. A house call is coming.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella and Micah receive news that they are under investigation for child abuse.

All Adora ever wanted was approval. In the eyes of Jehovah; the Religion she was raised in, to her foster mother, Sue Weaver who raised her from infancy when no one else would foster a baby, to her new family that was busy intellectuals with big important jobs. Glimmer was a straight-A student and played soccer and was super mature for a nine-year-old. Adora was starstruck by her new family. They were so cool, good looking and nice. But, nice to each other, their friends, and not much to Adora. They treated Adora different. Like a baby almost, super sensitive in the way her parents talk to her, Angella would often speak openly about Adora’s autism; something she was new to hearing and barely understood what it was. Micah was sweet to her, but he treated her like she was a baby; she liked that he gave her hugs and called her nice nicknames like Sweetie or pumpkin, but he was barely around. She felt sad when he would come home and just say “hi sweetie” and keep to himself in his garage or go off to the country club. Glimmer was the only one who was reluctant at first. She was annoyed with Adora’s autism. 

Adora felt alone and hurt and couldn’t bring herself to say anything about how she felt. She wanted to beg for attention and love from her new dad and sister. She felt foolish and ashamed to ask for such things. They weren’t like Catra or Lonnie. She didn’t grow up with them and earn their love. She felt like she had to earn it. She tried to her best to. She knew Glimmer liked boy bands, so she learned all the names to One Direction’s band members and Big Time Rush, but that didn’t impress her. Glimmer asked who Adora thought was the cutest and answered Zendaya and Selena Gomez. But that wasn’t a good enough answer for Glimmer, and she scoffed and told her she was supposed to answer with a boy’s name and not a girl. Adora felt embarrassed a gave up on trying to relate to Glimmer. Same thing with dad. She tried to tell Micah about the different names of cars she knew and car tools. He just laughed and told her she was cute. It wasn’t enough for him to offer to spend time with her. She wouldn’t even dare try to get Angella’s attention. She learned all about England before moving into her new home so she could relate to her new mom; the one person she wanted to impress the most. But after several failed attempts of not matching clothes, stuttering, being afraid of the dark, and not knowing how to cut a steak; Adora knew Angella was unimpressed. 

It hurt more to think about it. It’s the real reason she was upset to come back to their house. She like aunty's house better because auntie made the weekend all about her. Spending time with Adora and talked with Adora. It felt so comfortable and normal. She didn’t like the idea of going back to a house where she would need to stay in her room; play with her boring autism toys or read the same books over and over again. She wanted to play and do things, spend time with people, and snuggle. But those weren’t things in the Brighten household. 

Angella knew the whole ride home that Adora wasn’t happy. Even with the hopes of good news and a surprise wasn’t enough to keep a smile on Adora’s face during the ride home. She wished she could make her feel better. When arrived home; Micah and Glimmer greeted the two and Glimmer brought Adora up to her room to see her surprise.

Glimmer happily showcased all of Adora’s new things. Lifting a big unopened package with a picture of horse on it “Mom got this for you, she knows you like horses,” she placed it back down and picked up another package with a car on it “And this one I picked out, It’s a barbie car and it comes with two barbies; you said you used to play with barbies with your old friends, so I figured you would like this”

Adora was shocked by all of this. She had so many new toys for herself to play with. Barbies, Legos, more art stuff, and even a horsey place set with figured and a little stable to the build. She was so excited to place with all of them. 

Glimmer offered. “Do you… want to place with anything first?” 

Adora looked down “I—I wanna, p-play with the horsy toys” her stutter coming into effect with her excitement and anxiousness. 

Glimmer asked, “Do you want me to play with you?” a question Glimmer secretly wished would be no. Glimmer felt she was too mature to play with dolls and playsets anymore. She was nine and felt she was more of a big kid. She placed all her old toys away and only randomly played with any of them anymore. The one-time Adora asked to play; Glimmer reluctantly agreed but commented to Adora abut how babyish all her game ideas were. That hurt Adora’s feelings and she stopped asking Glimmer to play. She never wanted to tell anyone about her feelings getting hurt by Glimmer; she feared consequences. One time while watching NickJr. She got teased by Glimmer. In embarrassment, she ran to her room to cry and Micah found out and made Glimmer apologize. Adora felt guilty for that. She desperately wanted Glimmer to like her and didn’t want to give her any reason to not.

Glimmer played with Adora. it was her way to make it up to Adora for being so mean. She wanted to be a better sister to her. She had made attempts earlier this week, but she knew she needed to do better and be more selfless. She knew how unfair it was for her parents to be too busy for her, so she refused to be that way with Adora. If Adora liked baby stuff, then she would have to like that baby stuff too, that’s what a good big sister would do.

While the two kids played upstairs; Angella and Micah made dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy, but enough to make the girls happy. Glimmer had a better palate for foods then Adora. Angella, Micah, and Glimmer will have sausage and peppers over rice with salad. Something they were all used to eating and Adora would have a special meal. She would get a salad but also, she would have hot dogs and sliced mandarin oranges. Despite Angella finding hot dogs disgusting, she wanted Adora to enjoy dinner and not eat out of fear like she had been doing for the past month. 

Angella made a slightly dramatic sound of disgust as she placed the hot dogs in a boiling pot of water. Micah chuckled. “Remind me again why you hate hot dogs?”

Angella rolled her eyes “Back when I was still in my medical mentorship, I was in the E.R. and my first patient on my own was violently ill from a hot dog eating contest,”

She looked at Micah; his smiling showing as she spoke again “I got two questions answered before he vomited profusely on himself. After he was done puking, he shouted Alpha Gama for life and passed out!”

Micah laughed “And your hatred for hot dogs were born?”

Angella smiled “Yes and to make matters worse I went on a date with a really cute guy later that week and he took me to a barbeque, and they were serving only hot dogs and I had no choice but to eat some”

Micah chuckled when he realized that he was the cute guy from her story and that was back when they were first dating and he took her to a family barbeque. The two shared a light kiss before calling the girls down for dinner. 

The two girls came downstairs and Glimmer let her mom know that they had played together. 

“W-we played with the horsy toys” Adora added. 

“Aww, that’s good sweethearts. Dinner is ready, let's sit down” Angella instructed them.

_Mommy sounds nicer all of a sudden. Why is she being nice?_

Angella could tell by Adora’s reaction she was becoming uneasy. Adora could smell the vegetables and knew it was a dinner she wouldn’t like. Angella plated up Adora’s dinner while Micah plated Glimmer’s. Micah placed down Glimmer’s first food and Adora frowned when she saw it was sausage and peppers with rice. Adora mentally thought she could eat the rice and maybe swallow the sausage and peppers whole if she cut them small enough; she hated the taste of them and feared the response from Angella if she didn’t eat what was in front of her. If she was anything like Sue, it would be a face full of whatever Sue could throw at them for being picky eaters. 

Angella smiled and placed down Adora’s plate and informed “Adora, we’re going to start making you special dinners from now on, okay?”

Adora looked up at her mother, now worried. Special dinners used to be a code word for making someone eat something they didn’t like at Sue’s house. She was surprised to see it was hot dogs and oranges.

She smiled and Angella “Thank you, mommy”

Angella stroked the side of Adora’s face “Your welcome baby”

The family ate dinner together. All three original Brighten’s notice Adora wasn’t doing her rocking motion while eating. Angella was relieved and also saddened that for EVERY dinner Adora has ever had at their house was riddled with anxiety for her. 

When it was finally time for bed, Micah and Angella made sure to tuck Adora in. Micah turned on her new trying out dinner LED lights “Look, Adora. Night lights”

Adora seemed happy as she snuggled up to her new stuffed animals. Angella took Howie from Adora’s bookcase and placed him next to her “And where is your favorite stuffed animal”

Adora cuddled her stuffed monkey close to her neck and Micah kissed her on the forehead “Goodnight baby girl”

Angella kissed her on the forehead also and went to leave the room “Goodnight Adora”

Before she left, she heard Adora ask “Mommy?”

Angella turned back to her “Yes, Adora?”

Adora wanted to ask her why she was being so nice to her, was she good now? Was she acting less autistic? What made mommy and everyone nice to her all of a sudden? She couldn’t think of any words so say that would sound right and she just covered her head with her blanket “It’s not important, mommy, sorry” Adora meekly said. Hiding under her blankets.

Angella walked back over to Adora and sat on the edge of the bed “Baby, you can tell me anything”

Adora nervously looked up “My words won’t sound right”

Angella stroked her hair “Don’t worry about that. You can say anything that comes to your mind right now, only if you want to, I won’t make you”

Adora looked at her and asked. Her true main question to her mother is “Your nice to me now. Does this mean you love me now?”

A question like that is something a parent would never want to hear. The love a mother has for her child is unconditional, unequivocally to anything else in the work. A mother loves and forever her child, especially an adopted child. Angella’s mouth opened slightly at this question. Did Adora feel unloved?

“Adora? baby? Did you think I didn’t?” Adora covered her mouth with her blankets and nodded. _Oh God! Adora thought I didn’t love her?! _“Just so you know Adora, I loved you right away. That’s why we wanted to adopt you so quickly. I wanted you to be a part of our family”

Adora had lost eye contact with her. Either she was in deep thought or her anxiety was kicking in. Angella gave her another kiss. “You can talk to me whenever you want or tell me whatever your feeling, okay?”

It took Angella a few seconds to figure Adora wasn’t going to tell her tonight what else was on her mind. With that, she left Adora to sleep.

It was finally time for her to get to bed with Micah. Returning to the large room she saw the look on her husband's face. They both felt accomplished about how good the night. He embraced her and reminded her “The girls played together”

Angella kissed him and stated “Adora ate two plates of dinner; she finally ate until she was full”

“She looked like she likes her room”

“She did, she hasn’t done any of her nervous ticks all night,” Angella said softly. The rocking and fidgeting always bothered Angella. It wasn’t annoying, but she knew it was because Adora was anxious and she had no idea how to help her.

The two settled into bed and Angella tuned to charge her phone. She noticed she had a missed call and a voicemail. 

She began to listen to it.

And just like, she felt a chill come over her body. Octavia didn’t sound like her normal overly casual self. Despite it being late, Angella called back. To her surprise, Octavia picked up.

In the room down the hall, Adora stirred in her bed. She was comfy, but she kept thinking about what she wanted to tell mommy. She wanted to tell her she was happy she was adopted; she was really happy to meet her and the Child Welfare Center, she thought she was pretty and thought her being a doctor was cool. She sat up when she finally had the right words to say. She got up and moved down the hall slowly. She wanted to knock on her parent’s door and tell her mom what she wanted to ask her earlier. But she chose to sleep and wait for the morning. 

That morning Adora couldn’t recognize the thick atmosphere in the kitchen. Glimmer could tell her parents were upset. Adora didn’t pick up on this at all.

“Daddy look I picked my shirt out and it matches my pants” Adora informed Micah.

Micah gave a half-smile. 

“That’s good sweetie” his voice seemed exhausted. 

Glimmer sat closer to her dad. She gave him the _I know something is wrong_ to look. He patted her head and ate his breakfast. Angella couldn’t look at Adora right now. 

_Did Adora say something to her teachers? What could I have possibly done to make Adora this upset to make up a lie to an adult? _

Angella placed Adora’s breakfast in front of her and left the kitchen. The awful allegations still ringing in her ear after Octavia informed her.

_“I can’t say who is the person who made the claim, but we need to speak with you, Micah, Adora, and Glimmer to verify the claims, if there is no proof of the abuse then we will dismiss the claims”_

_“But who would claim I would hurt my daughter? And what are they claiming I have done?”_

_“I’m sorry Angella, I can’t give you that until we speak in person tomorrow”_

The girls were off to school and Angella was off to work. Then it clicked who could have done this to her family. She parked in her assigned doctor's parking spot and walked in. the pace of her heels made it clear a mood was set for the day. A nervous nurse aid phoned over to the nurse's break room.

“Angella’s coming and she looks pissed!”

Hanna-Marie threw her hands in the air in defeat “Already? Seriously Mondays aren’t her bitchy days! Thursdays are!”

Jillian nervously looked over to Hanna and clasped her hand over Hanna’s “Hanna, please calm down, we already have our schedule for the day; we aren’t even on her floor this week”

Hanna growled, “I swear if our kids weren’t friends, I’d tell her to go to—”

Her words were cut short as Angella walked in. All the nurses jumped when they saw her open the door. Angella was already in her white coat and her clipboard was in hand. It was clear this week was not going to be easy for anyone.

Especially Perfuma and Mermista’s mothers; after the park incident they must have called Child & Family Services on Angella for snapping at Adora. She was going to make them pay.

While Angella was making a handful of thirty-year-old nurses miserable; Micah had a visit from one of his close friends; the Attorney General of the State. The Country club had many networking advantages and for someone likable as Micah it was easy for big named people to find him charming. Being golf buddies with Government officials was not uncommon for him. 

“So, all they told you was that Adora is a focal point of a child abuse allegation?” he asked. Jeff was a skinnier, taller man then Micah, receding hairline and no facial hair. He sat across from Micah in his fancy office. Jeff had spotted a picture of Micah with Angella and Glimmer at Disneyland on his desk. Micah was a true family man, no doubt about that. 

Micah rubbed her hands over his face “Yes, and Angella is a wreck over it. You know my family Jeff; we would never hurt a child. If anything, Angella is overly protective of our girls and has gone to extreme lengths to protect Adora”

Jeff smirked and sat back in his seat “Trust me I know Angella I’ve been her wrestle water wings on Glimmer since she was seven; I can’t get enough of that”

They laughed at that. 

“I can’t lie, I know my wife can be a little bit of fun police, but she means well”

“I agree, I would trust her with my kids over my in-laws anyway”

“So, you can imagine our surprise when we got this phone call”

Jeff placed his hands over on knees and leaned in “Is there a chance Adora said something at school? does she show signs of being a problem child?”

Micah disagreed “Adora? no, not at all, she’s a shy and timid child. She barely talks to us, let alone her teachers” sounds even sadder saying that out loud. 

Jeff then asked in a more hushed tone “Anyone wants to dislike you or Angella on the school board?”

“No, everyone loves us, at least they love our money” they were power couple that donates to all the functions. Maybe they were showoffs in some capacity, but it’s never out of negative intent. 

“Maybe a parent to one of your kid's friends?” Jeff questioned. 

“No one I feel dislikes me but maybe—” it then clicked in his head that it might have been the parents at the park the day Angella had to drag Angella off the playground. They might have seen It as abusive and called for Adora’s safety. But why would they think Angella would be abusive to Adora? didn’t they know them well enough to know Angella loves her daughters? They didn’t know them enough if they would ever assume Angella would hurt a child. 

_Two years prior_

_The two sat in the doctor’s office together. Nervous; Angella took Micah’s hand into her own and looked down at her bare legs; she was in one of the standard hospital gowns and sitting on the check-up table with unease. She was afraid of the results. After years of pills, tests, and miscarriages after less than term; the couple had feared getting pregnant again wasn’t possible. Glimmer was a happy surprise/accident, and the two assumed having a second and third child would be easy. They were financially stable enough to do so; Both high paying careers; a great mortgage on a large home of four bedrooms and two bathrooms, stocks, bonds, and timeshares properties made them more and more money; and they still lived humbly enough to save up and plan for the hopes of a new baby and for Micah and Angella to both take a year off work to be with their new bundle of joy along with their precious firstborn, Glimmer. _

_The Doctor came in; a female and colleague to Angella. Her frown was not uplifting as she sat across from the couple and gave them the bad news. _

_“Angella,” she began “I’m sorry; but I don’t think having will be in the future, at least, not in the traditional way”_

_Angella winced as she did her best to hold back tears. She let her head rest on Micah’s shoulder. This was the worst news she had received in the longest time. The doctor took Angella’s free hand and patted it to comfort her. It didn’t help. She wanted another baby, and to be told it won’t happen broke her. Micah was saddened by this too, mostly due to his wife’s disappointment and how much he knew Angella will take this out on herself. _

_After they left the doctor’s office, they talked about other options to expand their family. Castaspella could be a surrogate, but Angella refused for that option immediately. The only other option was to adopt. And thus, the option for adoption began. _

“Micah? You alright?” Jeff asked. 

Micah shook his head “Y-yeah, sorry, I just kinda zoned out for a minute. Just thinking about Angella and Adora”

“I get it, but if I may ask; who is coming over to do this investigation later?”

“Her caseworker Octavia and her boss John Hordak”

Jeff’s face fell a bit when she heard the second name “John?”

“Yes, you know him”

Jeff rubbed his chin “Yes, but only because we’ve been investigating him silently”

“Investigating him? Why?”

“Micah,” he began in a worried tone “We’ve had several complaints come in from the office of Child Welfare from parents like you and Angella, hard worker, above middle class, wealthier families that believe they may have been extorted by the local child, family service departments in the State”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked. 

“It means…. Some families have claimed that John Hordak has threatened legal actions beyond his control to families unless they can comply with fines and legal fees that are not real”

“So, Extortion?” Micah asked. 

“Exactly. Micah, I’m afraid your family may have been made a target”

And with that, Micah was filled with rage. Jeff left the room to give Micah a moment to himself. Once he regained his composure. His day wasn’t going to go well. 


	7. What is a Suicide?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready to cry.

Recess was normal and Glimmer was on the other side of the playground with the third graders. Adora was playing with two boys; the ones that always give her snacks, she was happy to play with them. Their little game of hug tag was working to their advantage until it stopped being easy and they had to chase her. Unbeknown to them she was too fast. She ran over to the see what some other kids where doing. Three of the third graders hovering over Entrapta as she was sitting on the concrete reading something. 

Adora walked over. A girl in Glimmer’s class then informed “Entrapta says she can read college books, so Andy brought his brother’s book from home,”

“Oh,” Adora commented. Her two little boyfriends followed her over to the rest of the kids but didn’t tag her, they seemed more interesting in all the nonsensical words Entrapta was saying.

The pigtailed girl continued to recite _“Suicidal Behavior Disorder is a proposed DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition), a diagnosis which would be assigned to individuals who have made a suicide attempt within the past two years. A suicide attempt is defined, as a self-destructive act deliberately carried out where there is a clear expectation of death. Considering suicidal behavior as a condition independent of depression or other mental disorders is a paradigm shift, as suicidal ideation, attempts, and successful attempts were defined as behaviors associated with mood disorders and other mental disorders. It is noted that about 10% of people who commit suicide do not have a mental illness, and—” _

“Your making words up!” One boy said.

Entrapta retorted back “Am not!” lifting the book? “It says it all right here, this is a book on depression and mental health!”

“What’s mental health?” A boy asked. 

Entrapta lifted her index finger in the air and paraphrased something she had heard her dad say before “Mental health is the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is "functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment; in abridged terms, it’s a person’s condition concerning their psychological and emotional well-being”

None of the kids still got that. 

Adora then asked, “What’s it say about autism?”

All of them looked at her. She blushed and stammered out a lie “I’m asking for a friend”

Entrapta flipped to the front of the book to see if there was any chapter on it. “Let me see…..” she trailed off. She perked up a bit and flipped to another page “Oh, here is something, it says: _In a recent study published in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Angela Gorman and colleagues identified several risk factors associated with thinking about suicide and suicide attempts in children with ASD. (The study was supported, in part, by a grant from Autism Speaks.) Through parent interviews, the researchers inquired about 791 children with autism, 186 typically developing children and 35 non-autistic children with diagnosed depression. The percentage of children rated by their parents as “sometimes” to “very often” contemplating or attempting suicide was 28 times greater for those with autism than those with typical development. It was 3 times less among those with autism than among the non-autistic children who had depression. Depression was also the strongest single predictor of suicidal thoughts or attempts among children with autism. Fortunately, suicidal tendencies were uncommon among children under age 10” _

Adora didn’t understand any of that. All she gathered that was under 10 and suicide is normal is common in autism. So, maybe when she is older, she will want to suicide? What even is suicide?

“What’s suicide?” Adora asked.

Entrapta looked up to her and didn’t answer. She knew what it was but wasn’t sure if she should tell her. As a neurodivergent child with a high IQ, she had some very unique choices in reading material. She freaked out her classmates last year in the first grade when she was really into zombie apocalypse stuff and got in trouble for helping her friends prepare for doomsday. She was taken out of her regular mainstream class after that. now, she had recess with other kids but spends most of her time in the Special Education classroom. 

Just Entrapta’s luck. Another girl answered. “It’s when you kill yourself. Like when the Genie from Aladdin killed himself”

“The Genie didn’t kill himself! His voice actor did! My dad said Robin Williams cut himself then hung himself!” another kid commented.

Adora looked confused.

Entrapta commented “Robin Williams suffered from depression, that’s why he killed himself”

What’s depression? What are all these words mean? Adora thought to herself. She wanted to ask more questions, but a teacher walked over and asked what they were all doing. In a panic, Entrapta handed the book back to the boy who gave it to her, and another girl replied “We’re reading about suicide” 

The teacher's face fell as she demanded the book to be handed to her. A boy replied frantically with “It wasn’t Entrapta’s fault! I asked her if she could read college books! This is my brother’s book! He’s going to college! We’re not doing anything bad!”

The teacher scolded. “This isn’t appropriate for your ages, and Entrapta we don’t need another first- grade apocalypse bunker incident, now do we?” she said taking Entrapta back inside. Adora felt bad for her. Now with all the kids disbursing she rushed over to ask the boy who explained Robin William’s suicide to the group.

“Hey,” Adora called. “So if someone suicides—what does it mean?” 

The kid looked confused “It means you die….” They deadpanned. Surprised that Adora didn’t know what it meant. They followed it up with “My grandma died, and she went to Heaven. So, when I die when I’m old I get to see her and my hamster when I die and go to heaven with them” they said before walking off.

This was a new concept for Adora. When she dies and goes to Heaven; she’ll meet her mom and dad. That will be a long time from now. 

After that, the rest of the school day went fine. 

Things didn’t get strange until she got picked up from dad and mom in separate cars after school. Glimmer commented “I think something is wrong” before getting in the car. Both girls went for Micah’s car. Which made Angella feel jealous. Of course, the girls would choose Micah over her. He was the fun parent after all. She rolled her eyes. Hoping This wouldn’t take long. The pick-up line was of cars was starting to get bigger. 

Adora followed after. “Hi, daddy” she greeted.

Micah smiled “Hi, baby girl, Glimmer, we’re heading home; Glimmer you're going with mommy and Adora you're coming with me”

The girls looked at each other briefly before going to their designated cars. 

Adora was confused “Daddy where are we going?” she asked. 

Micah looked at her through his rearview mirror “Baby girl, we need to go to Child Family services, you need to talk to a social worker”

“Octavia?” she asked. It was odd, they had already talked to Octavia last week and she only needed to see her randomly. 

He shook his head “John Hordak”

Adora felt her body go cold “J—john? No! daddy, he’s not nice!” Adora was familiar with john and did no like him. 

Micah asked, “You’ve met him?”

“Y-yeah” she stuttered “H-he is the reason why Sue lost her bigger kids! The bigger boys had to leave the foster home because of things that weren’t their fault!”

Micah raised a brow and pondered before speaking. Adora was familiar with John and feared him. She was going to need to speak to him and she might be manipulated by him. He then asked, “Have you ever spoke to him?” From what Jeff had explained to him; was that Hordak had a reputation of manipulating kids and parents. Cases were pending against Hordak, but not enough to proceed further into an investigation. It could work to their advantage. Adora knew how awful Hordak was and might not fall into any of his traps of deceit. 

“No, he only talks to the kids who are being bad,” Adora’s mind went into a panic “Daddy?! Was I bad?”

He didn’t answer her because he thought it was a silly question. Adora was too good of a kid to worry about that. He turned into the parking lot. A regrettable move, for Adora, took his silence as confirmation of her misbehaving. It was a horrifying thought. Daddy might be mad at her? Daddy always liked her the most out of everyone. The second Micah pulled into a parking spot; he jumped at the sound of Adora’s violet crying and banging her head on the backseat of the car. He was startled. Micah had never seen an emotional break down like this; and just like Angella, he was mistaking it as a tantrum. When Glimmer was younger he would always give in to his daughter’s demands—he tried to desperately hush Adora and tell her it was “All right” and “Fine” all his words rang hollow as all Adora could feel was sickened to her stomach as her mind was shutting down and all her senses where on overdrive. Crying and rocking were all she could do to self-medicate and her father’s desperate pleas for her stop was not helping. Every time she heard his voice, her cries became louder and louder until Micah snapped. Not one for losing his temper often, but just as overly sensitive as his wife and when he was tested, he can lose it—which he just did.

“Enough!” he yelled. 

Adora stopped and looked at him with pure terror. Her heart was racing, and her body felt shaken with fear. He rubbed his hair and stood up and apologized “Baby girl I’m so sorry” 

He offered his hand to help her out of the backseat.

She flinched. Her tears still streamed down her face and she scooted away to the other side of the car to get out of the car from the other side. Micah nervously walked over to her “Adora, honey, I’m sorry I yelled”

He tried to grab her shoulder and Adora shielded her face with her forearms. He felt awful for upsetting her. All he could do was tell her it was time to go inside. 

She whimpered about needing to use the bathroom and after he checked them at the reception desk; he took her to the restroom. 

To Adora’s shame. She had peed a little in her underwear when her father yelled at her. She couldn’t tell him that she wet herself. Luckily her jeans weren’t wet. All she could do was hide her underwear in her backpack and uncomfortably go commando until they got home. Now with her jeans pulled up she made her way back to the waiting room. Making sure not to sit next to dad either. 

Feeling his gaze caused her to tremble slightly in fear. What if he snapped at her again? She kept her eyes down and didn’t dare look at him. She was too scared to. It was different when Angella Hurt her feelings, but for Micah to do it now too—it was all too much for her. 

Micah tried to offer some more sincerity to her and asked “I didn’t mean to get upset at you. I’m sorry”

Adora just kept her head down. Fighting tears. If she cried again, he might yell at her. Even if he is saying sorry now it doesn’t matter, he still got mad—she can’t help it. She has autism.

It clicked in with Adora at that moment. All the times of feeling stress, sick, and upset was due to her being autistic. Sue, Catra, and all the others didn’t care about her being autistic Adora’s inabilities worked to Sue’s advantage and her strong capabilities are what kept her in line like the good girl in foster care. Now, with her new family, she knew she didn’t belong with them. Her anxiety and her meltdowns were always coming up. Sometimes she just hides in her room and cries from all the stress and sensory overloads, but Glimmer can hear her and would often get annoyed by it. Having an actual meltdown in front of them only angered them and why wouldn’t it? Glimmer never freaks out and covers her ears; she never whimpered and stutters; she’s no baby that gets sad and wants her handheld. Glimmer, Angella, and Micah were perfect people. They should have picked a better daughter. Adora trembled in her seat as she managed to fight off the tears that threatened to spill out. 

Micah tried to extend his arms out to hug her, but all Adora did was continue to look down. She was scared of him. His deep voice terrified her. He sounded like Sue; she had a mean voice from smoking cigarettes and daddy—no. She shouldn’t call him that right now. Micah! had a mean vice because he was a boy. 

Without further delay. They were called in to talk to John Hordak. 

In the office, it was slightly inviting towards children. A trainset and Legos were placed on a small Paw Patrol table in the corner and a couch with pillows and blankets. The walls were covered with Pixar and Disney posters to give any child a very warm and inviting look. 

Sitting on the couch Micah tried to coax Adora to sit next to him, but she refused and sat further away. Hordak looked to him; Micah could swear it was smugness. 

The adults talked a little as Adora kept darting her eyes around the room. She was calming down; clutching her backpack close to her. 

John offered “Micah, why don’t you explain your daily routines with your daughters and how are Adora; in your opinion adjusting?”

Micah then placed his phone on the table in front of them. “I will gladly answer those questions, but I have the legal right to record mine and my daughter’s statements”

John Hordak nodded “Of course, Would you like me to repeat the question?”

“Please”

“Explain your daily routines with your daughter’s and how is Adora; in your opinion adjusting?”

Micah looked at Adora while she kept her eyes down to her lap. Hordak took note that Adora looked timid and fearful. Micah then cleared his throat and proceeded “Well, my daily routines start with getting the girls up for school. Angella and I rotate on who makes breakfast depending on who needs to go to work earlier, we also rotate on who takes the girls to school and who picks them up. We keep in communication throughout the day and we all eat dinner together, I sometimes put a movie on for them or we go out places. I feel Adora is adjusting fine, She’s a very sweet and sensitive child, we love her very much” he finished looking at her. 

Still, Adora didn’t dare to look up at him.

Hordak wrote a few notes down and then shifted to Adora.

“Adora you seemed distressed; can you please tell us why?”

Adora violently shook her head, afraid to answer. If she said the wrong thing to Hordak or if Micah did, she might be sent away. 

Hordak asked, “How are you feeling today Adora?”

Adora shivered a bit in her spot on the couch. She was nervous, scared, and stressed out. she felt her body shake and she did everything in her power not to cry. If she had something like a blanket or a pillow to hold on to for security, she would have felt better. Her usual stims of biting or rocking would not be tolerated in this setting and the desperate cling to control her sensory meltdown made her shut down all her other senses. Her eyes were shut tightly as she refused to answer any questions. 

Ignoring her father and Hordak’s request to speak; Hordak commented that Adora seemed defiant. 

Micah defended his daughter. “She’s very well behaved and has great manners; she’s upset to have to be here. I’m sure you can understand why. Her only knowledge of Child Family Services and You—in particular is that your presence meant her foster siblings were removed from the home”

Hordak exhaled from his nose loudly. He hated that Micah said that on the recording. It makes it harder to make a case against them if Adora has a bias of fear against Hordak. If another caseworker needs to be assigned; then Hordak and Sue miss out on a paycheck. 

Adora felt her stomachache in pain as an unpleasant pressure in the back of her throat came lurking up. Hordak and Micah did a bit of back and forth on what was the right thing to do in this situation. Micah recommended a different social worker due to Adora knowing who Hordak was; while Hordak defended it didn’t matter and the only reason Adora wasn’t speaking was fear of Micah rather than himself. 

As Micah defending that Adora was never afraid of him. 

He turned to look and saw Adora’s pained expression and sweating. He never saw her make that face before. She looked nauseous.

Hordak suggested “Perhaps we should give her a moment to regain her senses and I will ask her questions in private”

“The recorder stays on” Micah declared. 

“Of course,” Hordak replied. Smug at the fact that Micah had no control over Adora. 

He left Adora alone and the blonde child just looked down at her lap in fear. Saying the wrong things could get her taken away from her new home, but even if it doesn’t—Adora wasn’t liking her new home so much. Her feeling from last night conflicted with her and her time with auntie Casta. 24-hours ago she felt so loved, but to come and sit down with Hordak made her feel so betrayed. Micah yelling at her didn’t help her feelings either—could it be she said too much to Casta and they are now punishing her? Sue would punish them with kindness just to get some information out of them. Adora could remember getting a plate of cookies all to herself in exchange for telling Sue who wrote with sharpie markers and stained the kitchen table. Adora answered honestly and was forced to watch the beating of Lonnie and Catra. All for cookies, Adora had hurt her friends. 

When Adora was left alone with Casta she shared her feelings, how much she missed her friends and how much she didn’t spend as much time as she wanted with her new family. She hated her autism diagnosis and told Casta she felt so outcasted by her new mom for it. She even made the mistake of telling dad she wished she was never adopted. 

_Oh no!_

_This is why!_

The night of the park incident when Micah went to comfort her. When she told him that; he must have told mom and auntie and they decided to punish her for it. After being so nice to her—this was what it was all for—to make her apologize and realize how ungrateful she is for being accepted into a new home. This was a plan to get her to tell Hordak and take her away for saying that and being bad.

“Adora, you’re in a safe place, okay. I just need to ask you a few questions,”

Adora whimpered “I don’t want to be here, I like my house, I don’t want to leave” 

Hordak looked down at the tape recorder in annoyance. Adora was such an overly emotional child and begging not to be removed from her home didn’t help the abuse allegation. Hordak tried his best to assure her “Adora if your home is safe, there is nothing to worry about”

Adora stammered out “My house is nice and safe, Angella is a doctor, mommy is very protective-bearing” her childish stammered mixed overbearing and overprotective together. 

Hordak then asked “It sounds like your trying to convince me that your family is good for you, Adora. you don’t have to do that. I just need to ask you questions about you. Now, Are you a good girl? Do you behave for your new parents?”

Adora clutched her shirt in pain. She felt sick again. She knew she hadn’t been good. She was bad at the park. She said things to her dad she shouldn’t of, she told auntie things she probably shouldn’t have said, and then she was autistic in the car ride over and Micah had to yell at her. She wasn’t being good.

Adora shook her head in shame. Closing her eyes tightly. 

Hordak questioned “Why haven’t you been behaving yourself, Adora? you’re a very lucky girl to be adopted. Do you think your friends in foster care will be happy to know you're being ungrateful?” he instantly regretted saying that. bullying her into an answer is harder with evidence of what he was doing.

Hordak asked “Can you explain to me why you shook your head. Why do you think you’re not behaving at home?”

Adora looked at him with teary eyes. He offered her to breathe and take her time before answering. If he can get her to say anything incriminating against the Brighten’s that could be considered mental abuse, he could garner some sort of check out of them. 

Adora admitted “I didn’t have autism before I live with Sue. When I got it, I started making mistakes that I didn’t use to do. I think Angella stopped liking me as much after she found out”

“Found out about your autism?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, Adora. I’m sure the doctor told you; that you’re on the high-functioning part of the spectrum and you're just as normal as you were before. Why do you feel Angella stopped liking you?” he needed to hook her into saying something incriminating. But, with being recorded and knowing Micah’s legal advantages, it will be hard. It would be easier to throw Sue under the bus and just get Adora to tell all the abuse he knew about but making Sue an enemy would only incriminate himself. 

This Adora case was a dud.

He sighed “Well, Adora. You don’t feel like you’re in harm, do you? your safe and you like your house?”

Adora nodded. 

He then asked “Do you want to go back home”

Adora nodded again “Yes, please”

Hordak sighed and stood up; ready to get Micah but stopped when he thought of something to do with the recordings. 

“Adora?” he asked. “Would you feel more comfortable to talk to me about things that upset you if your parents couldn’t hear it?”

Adora shrugged “I don’t know, I tell my mom and dad lots of stuff” 

He then offered “Do you want this recorder off?”

Adora looked confused “Huh?”

“Would you feel better talking to me, if this was off? Are you afraid mommy and daddy will be upset with you?”

Adora hesitated and stuttered “A-are they upset with me?”

Her question was filled with fear. Hordak smirked and offered “Take the recorder and do what you want with it, this is all about you, Adora. Now, tell me, what is going on?”

Adora looked at the phone, fearfully. She didn’t know if turning it off was the right thing to do. What if daddy got mad? 

Adora looked up and stated “I just want to make people happy with me. I don’t want to do anything bad” 

Hordak looked down at her and offered “I will help you do that, but I need you to tell me everything” he pointed to the phone again. Adora clicked the button on it. Assuming she had turned it off when she had only just itemized it. It was still recording when Adora spilled her heart out about everything. Her early childhood, things that made her sad and confused, her missing her old friends, the old abuse she witnessed, her constant fear of disapproval of her new family –especially her fear of not having Angella’s love. None of what she said was enough to keep the case open. All it was incriminating events against sue, but nothing against the Brighten family. Hordak slowly grew more and more annoyed with Adora and it was starting to show.

“Have you ever been hit?” he asked. Changing the subject away from her talking about missing Catra for the umpteenth time.

“Only by Sue, one of the teenage boys, and two of the teenage girls” Adora answered. Hordak let out a long sigh. Adora flinched “Was that not the right answer?”

“No,” he exclaimed “You’re not giving me any of the right answers—Adora I need to help you!” he snapped. 

Adora quivered “I—'m sorry, I—I Don’t know what you want me to say!” she sobbed. 

Hordak rubbed his temples in frustration. Great, now she’s crying. He’s going to need Micah to get her soon. He looked down at his phone. He only had a few minutes with her left and all he got was ramblings of feeling insecure and missing old friends, no abuse or mental torture like he had hoped for, the leads Sue gave him where a complete dud and if he has to explain this any further, he might as well give up. The only option he had was a to outright lie. He picked up his phone to hit the record feature on his apps. 

“Adora, if you say what I tell you to, I can make it so you can see your friend again, and be happier”

Adora sniffled and nodded at that.

Hordak grinned and sat next to Adora on the couch. Still unaware that Micah’s phone was still recording “Now in a few seconds, I’m going to hit record, and when I do, the questions I’ll ask only need a yes for an answer, okay?”

Adora nodded “Uh-huh” 

“Good, now get ready, this will be fixed soon”

//

Angella had her meeting with a social worker as well. Octavia showed up again—late as always and rudely with a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee in one hand and her folder in another. She got Glimmer’s name wrong again for the third time and was texting during the conversation. 

Angella snapped at her “Is this matter not serious enough for you! you called me to inform me of allegations of my parenting and now you’re just taking your time texting!”

Octavia jumped at that “Sorry, Angelica—”

“Angella!” she corrected. Crossing her arms. Octavia cleared her throat and apologized again. The two talked for a bit before Glimmer talked to Octavia in private. Glimmer didn’t have much to say. She ended up turning the conversation on to Octavia with childish inquiries like: Why did you choose this as your job? Why do you have a lazy eye? And why is she always late? 

Octavia had no good answers. She left in a bit of a hurry, something about being late for another meeting. Rudely leaving her coffee and folder on the floor, next to her chair. Angella wanted to be petty and text her about her leaving her coffee cup on the floor. When she realized Octavia left a document of sensitive information on Adora in the house, she chose not to. She sent Micah a quick text about it but didn’t get the quick response she thought she would.

Just as she went to go upstairs, she heard the front door open and the sobs of a little girl. She looked to see Adora was crying on her way to her room—ignoring Angella as she marched herself into her room to cry. Speechless, Angella went downstairs to see Micah rubbing his head and pacing. 

“What happened?” she asked.

Micah looked at her and replied Horsley; his throat was dry from possibly yelling “He tricked her into turning off the recorder and she just went on some weird autopilot of saying yes to all his allegations; I just got into a huge fight with the coward and he threatened to call the cops on me for making a scene!—We were asked to leave and the whole time Adora’s been crying like that for almost an hour!”

Angella blinked and shook her head “Wait? What? Hordak can’t tell Adora to shut off a tape recorder”

“Not if Adora does it willingly. He asked her if she wanted it on and she told him no and turned it off” he said before sitting down at a chair in the kitchen, he looked down to see the iced coffee on the floor and asked, “Octavia left her coffee here again?”

Angella nodded “Yes, and Adora’s file”

“File as in?”

“Her entire folder of all child service claims” Angella stated before returning to the original conversation. “Now, back to what happened at the office with Adora?” 

Micah looked at her with a disappointed look in his eyes “She just said yes to all abuse allegations because, as, she put it “He said it will make things better” for her and she just flat out lied for his benefit”

Angella’s eyes went wide in horror. “She said that?”

Micah nodded “Yes when she handed me back my phone, she told me that Hordak said it would be better to talk without it on”

Angella ran her hands on her face and groaned “Why would she do this?”

Micah shrugged “I don’t know, all I know is we need to do something about her, she can’t go off and lie to people”

Angella pondered for a second before she sat down across from Micah “Is it possible her autism doesn’t help her to decipher right from wrong? Do we still have a fighting case to protect her?”

Micah nodded “I have Jeff coming over to discuss things with us,” he said as he pulled out his phone “Oh, I have an app still open?’

Angella placed her hands on her head and panicked! “Jeff Schemer?! The Attorney General? Micah, I didn’t plan on cooking how can I have company over with—”

Micah waved his hand “I already told him we’re having pizza, he loves pizza! We’re fine honey, he’s going to talk to us more about Adora and we should be able to sort this out” he said squinting at his phone “It looks like I have a two-hour long recording”

Angella growled and turned over to the pantry door. The corner of her eye-catching Glimmer looking into the kitchen. “Glimma” her mother sterned. 

Glimmer flinched a little. She had overheard enough to know her parents were upset. She wanted a snack and to ask what was going on. She meekly asked “Mommy? What’s going on?”

Angella pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed “We’re having company over soon and we have a lot of adult things to discuss. I would like you to stay in your room until dinner, alright?”

Glimmer nodded and asked, “Can I have a snack?”

Angella inhaled deeply. She didn’t like how many Glimmer wanted snacks all the time. She was watching her weight and was noticing she was going through the early stages of a chubby phase. “Sure, honey” she replied exhaling and gave her daughter two granola bars “Give one to your sister,”

Glimmer took it and tried to hand it back to her “Adora’s in her closet banging her head on the wall”

Angella’s expression turned cold. Walking past her daughter she made her way to Adora’s bedroom. Her mind went into a fury of thoughts. Why was Adora acting like this? Hitting her head? Yes, an autistic trait for those on the lower functioning spectrum, however, Adora is high functioning—but—apparently—only when she chooses too, to lie and cause all of this. For a child well behaved in school, she sure had a funny way of acting out at home. Making the Brighten family look like monsters, if she hates living here so much then maybe she should—

Angella stopped herself before she got to the door. Instantly regretting all her thoughts. Adora isn’t a bad kid…. she’s sick! She has mental health issues. She had a documented condition. She’s an autistic eight-year-old. She’s not a bad girl. 

She opened the door and heard the muffled sobs and thumps coming from the closet. She opened the door to see the unsettled and bizarre sight of Adora—covering herself with a jacket and a throw blanket as she rocked herself, her head hitting the wall of the closet. 

The one side of Angella knew this was stimming and Adora was self-soothing to calm down after having a sensory overload. Another side felt angry to see this happen—again. Adora should be fine. This incident is partially due to Adora’s actions. Even if she can’t help it, It was Adora who made the scene and the park and set off the chain of events that is accruing now.

Before Angella could react, she was startled by the voice of her much-loathed Sister-in-law. 

“She needs to stim, prop a pillow behind her” Casta instructed. She walked over to Adora’s bed for a pillow and received a glare from Angella. “I got this” the British woman declared. 

Casta just rolled her eyes “I don’t think you do; you’re just watching her give herself a concussion, Dr. Brighten”

_Oh! That’s it!_

Angella turned to her for a fight. The nerve of her to say that in front of Adora—granted Adora wasn’t paying any mind to them, but the fact was still clear. Casta had no hope that Angella was a good mom for Adora. 

The two took their argument in the hallway. Leaving Adora alone to self-soothe. Glimmer heard the entire event and was furious with Adora. it was all Adora’s fault for this. If mommy and auntie keep fighting—she won’t, see auntie anymore. It will be like the time auntie and mommy fought on Christmas and she had to wait until a whole other Christmas to see auntie again. When she heard the adults finally move downstairs, she went over to Adora’s room. Finally, Adora had calmed down enough to stop stimming and sat on her bed with her toy monkey. 

Glimmer approached her. Annoyed to see her like this. Hair frizzy and her face all red from crying. Nose running, she didn’t look cute anymore. Glimmer saw her stare blankly at her stupid stuffed animal and got more annoyed. 

_Your eight! Stop acting like you two!_ Is what Glimmer wanted to say. Glimmer spoke “Mom and auntie are fighting because of you, daddy has a friend coming over to talk about what you did,” she taunted. She knew better to do this, but the conclusion Glimmer has now come to—was that Adora was faking and was doing this all on purpose. “You got what you wanted, everyone’s paying attention to you now”

The blonde covered her face and sobbed again “I—I didn’t want this!” Adora cried. 

Glimmer’s expression turned dark. Of course, this is what Adora wanted. How could it not? Every time Adora has a freak out; Angella and Micah would focus all their attention on her. Every time! Adora would cry about something stupid, Micah would ask what was wrong? And Angella would say it was an autistic thing, and then it was over. 

Glimmer asked “Then why do you act this way? You always do this and get attention”

Adora answered through her sobs “I don’t want anyone mad at me, I don’t mean to do bad stuff”

_Oh! She admits she does bad things! She is a faker!_

“What did you do bad?” Glimmer asked. 

Adora sniffled “I told the guy what he wanted me to tell him and it got daddy angry”

The guy? What guy? The social worker?

Glimmer glared “You lied?”

Adora nodded “He said to” 

“Who?!”

“The social worker, H-Hordak”

Glimmer growled “whatever you said made mommy angry! Just like when you went to auntie’s house and daddy and mommy got into a fight because of you,”

Glimmer paused and saw Adora tremble a bit. It was strange since Adora was acting like Glimmer was going to hit her. Which, Glimmer would never do, and also, Adora was taller and stronger than Glimmer. It made no sense for her to act like this. Glimmer added “All you do is cry and make problems,” she said before turning away from her “Why don’t you just make problems someplace else,” she said before leaving.

This crushed Adora. Mommy, daddy, and Glimmer are mad at her, is auntie too? That would devastate her if auntie and everyone stopped liking her. What would happen to her? Sue warned her she could be sent to a group home—and group homes kids get beat up! Or worse, a new family will make her hurt her in worse ways—Sue never explained worse ways to her, but anything worse than getting beaten was something Adora didn’t want.

Adora cried into her stuffed monkey. 

_Howie! What am I going to do? If I get sent away, I’ll be sadder, Hordak said doing what he said would make things better, and all it’s done is make things worse! I’m an orphan! I don’t have anywhere else to go! I need to wait 10 more years before I can get a job and live on my own._

Adora sat up from her bed and looked out her window. Planning something to do to escape the inedible punishment of being sent to a group home. She looked at her room and looked in her closet. She had a lot more clothes now since Angella bought her so much. Looking around her room, she had a lot more toys and other things too. She couldn’t place all that in her backpack, not even the tote on her top closet shelf could carry all this. She would need to leave stuff behind. She looked back at her window. Where would she go? Auntie’s house was out of the question if she was mad at her. Catra was with Sue and Sue warned her she can never come back now that she was adopted. She could just live at school as the teachers do. The nurse’s office has a cot and a shower. There’s a big fridge in the cafeteria, she should be fine. 

She paced around and started to feel sick. Running away would be bad wouldn’t it? The girl who ran away from Sue’s house got put in teenager jail—is there a kid jail? Adora became more frightened at the thought_. I don’t want to go to kid jail! _Her eyes started to water. She didn’t like this plan anymore. All she wanted to do was go back to being normal. Play, have friends, being ignored by adults—those were the days! If she had her real mom and dad, they would treat her the way Micah and Angella do to Glimmer and she wouldn’t feel like this anymore. 

Wait?

_My mom and dad are in heaven! Sue said I will see them when I get older and die! If I die now, I get to be with my mom and dad!_

Adora’s head will with dangerous thoughts of self-harm.

Jeff had arrived shortly after Casta did and they spoke briefly. Micah informed him pizza was on the way. Casta and Angella remained civil as Jeff was present. Being such an important person—Jeff was given special treatment from everyone and even someone like Angella was awestruck by him. In reality, he was normal and not jaded by his position. 

while the adults sat downstairs listening to the audio recording on Micah’s phone. Adora never turned the recorder off and the entire conversation of Hordak bribing and lying to Adora about if she says what he tells her to—that everything will be okay. Never elaborating on the okay part or what he meant by better. All four Adults' hearts sunk at the meek and naïve voice of Adora pleading to get Hordak to make her parents like her mom and that she didn’t want to go to a group home.

Jeff turned to Micah during the part of the conversation where Micah and Hordak argued at the end; when Adora handed back the phone and said she turned it off during the session.

“Has Adora ever shown a sign of defiance?” he asked.

Micah and Angella looked at each other and shook their heads. Micah answered “No, she’s a really good girl, she’s just not great with vocalizing what she wants. What happened today is something we’ve never seen her do before”

Casta turned to Jeff and informed, “I’ve always suspected she may have gone through heavy abuse in foster care—”

Angella cut her off and mumbled “Always suspected? You officially met her a week ago”

Casta glared “as I said; I suspected it, Adora is also unmedicated and doesn’t see a therapist, only a social worker,”

Angella crossed her arms and turned to Jeff “We as a family decided to—not—make Adora endure the side effects of medication, she never had any before and with starting a new school and adjusting we saw it would be unfair to make her handle the _other_ medical ramifications that come with unnecessary medication” she gave Casta a cold look. 

Jeff felt a sense of unease as he looked over to Micah; clearing his throat Micah excused him and Jeff into the kitchen to wait for the pizza to arrive.

Jeff commented, “They-uh—don’t get along?”

Micah stroked his beard “They have a lot of opposing opinions,”

“Clearly” Jeff chuckled.

In the corner of Jeff’s eyes, he saw someone slip out of the kitchen just as they were entering. He assumed it was Glimmer eavesdropping and didn’t want to expose the child for her curiosity and didn’t say anything.

What he didn’t know was he had just seen the tail end of Adora sneaking downstairs to grab a kitchen steak knife.

Heart pounding—she was back in her room, sweating and what she was about to do. Remembering what the schoolyard kid told her. 

  
_“The actor who played the Genie on Aladdin cut his wrists and hung himself”_

Adora thought it through. Her childish sheltered logic. 

_Die = heaven = being reunited with parents that love me, oh, and I have a brother_

She paced around a little with the knife still in her hand. Being raised Jehovah didn’t give her much of a clue on Heaven. Her only knowledge on Heaven came from the one-time Angella took her to church and she sat in on the Sunday school class with Adora. Conveniently that was the day they talked about angels in heaven and where you go when you die. 

Heaven = good

Hell = bad

Adora’s been good enough to get into Heaven. The gatekeeper; or whoever—Maybe Jesus? They would understand her situation and not hold it against her that she was doing this. 

Adora looked into her closet. 

Pondering on changing her clothes. She might want to dress nicer for her parents. _Real parents._ Also, she didn’t have a belt to hang herself as Robin Williams did, so she was going to need to use a sheet. Ripping the sheet off her bed—revealed a stained wet spot from two weeks ago. She has been far too ashamed to tell anyone about her bedwetting. She would get beaten at Sue’s house but feared her punishment at her new house would be more humiliating. She covered up her stain with a towel. She moved the clothes hanging up in her closet to the side and started to wrap the sheet around the bar. Once it was pulled tight, she looked down at her arms. She knew this was going to hurt. But it should be fast, right?

Her eyes watered as she thought about what she was doing.

_I’m doing the right thing. I want to be with my family. My real one. My new one doesn’t like me. I keep messing up. I can’t get mad at them for not liking me. Even if I like them, I can’t make them like me. _

Adora looked down at the knife and put it up to her wrist. 

Pressing down she held her breath as she gave it one swift cut.

She yelped in pain as it hurt more then she had intended it to. Tears fell from her eyes as she proceeded to make fewer deep cuts up her arm. Red from the blood escaping the wounds she whimpered as she did it. It hurt so much. She did a few more cuts on her other arm. Still not as deep as the first one. Her arms hurt so bad from what she had just done. She placed the knife on her bed on top of the towel and walked over to her closet. 

She hoped this part didn’t hurt. She tried to tie the sheet around her neck. She tied the other end of the blanket to the bar. She had placed her backpack and a box under her so she could jump off it. When she jumped, she snapped the bar of the closet and it caused the shelf above it to collapse down too. Everything fell on top of Adora. A large box of board games hitting Adora on the head and knocking her out. 

Still annoyed with Adora’s previous antics; Glimmer walked into her bedroom to see what Adora had done. To her disbelief and horror, she saw Adora on the floor—her room a mess with clothes and toys scattered around from when her shelf and clothes bar collapsed. Adora was on the floor with a sheet wrapped around her neck for some reason. Glimmer walked over and barked “What did you do?”

Adora didn’t respond when Glimmer came closer to her. Still feeling like she had the right to be mean, Glimmer nudges her with her foot “I’m going to tell mommy you messed up your room on purpose” she informed. She nudged Adora again to see she wasn’t moving still. She bent down to look at her and tugged her arm—only to finally see all the bloody cuts on it. 

Glimmer jumped back after seeing this. Glimmer felt her mouth go dry as she ran downstairs.

Angella heard the commotion and met her at the end of the stairway to ask what was going on. Glimmer broke down and cried in her mother’s arm “A-Adora’s—bl-bleeding!”

A massive chill ran over Angella as she rushed upstairs with Casta. 

Angella felt her heart sink. As she saw Adora on the floor unconscious. She moved Adora on to her back and saw the blanket tied around her. She untied it and checked her pulse by touching her neck. Looking down at the cuts she felt terrified and uncertain t what happened. To proceeded to call her name and touch her face. 

“Adora? Honey? It’s mommy”

She heard Glimmer crying in Casta’s arms and proceeded to give Adora CPR. She lost consciousness and choked herself with the blanket. Her biggest fear was sinking in as she couldn’t get Adora to wake up. She couldn’t help Adora. She’s a respected plastic surgeon and she can’t help her bleeding daughter? 

Micah and Jeff were still in Micah’s office during this whole ordeal and didn’t hear anything. They were focused on what legal actions could be taken against Hordak. 

It wasn’t until a knock at the door came from his office—he opened it to see his sister; shaken and holding back tears.

“What’s wrong?” Micah asked.

Casta replied; doing everything she could to not cry “I need to take Adora to the hospital—she cut herself and she tried to hang herself”

Micah felt his heart fall to his stomach. He turned to Jeff; who jumped up to ask where was Adora? 

Casta took Micah’s hand and brought him upstairs to see what was going on. 

He saw his wife trying to bandage her wounds and her head carefully secure in a fort of pillows. 

Angella looked up to him with tears in her eyes. 

“We need to call an ambulance to get her on a stretcher. She lost consciousness” Angella tried to be as calm as possible. 

Everything was going to be fine, but with Adora’s mental falling, it would be most garner another case to be opened against the family. 


	8. Brighten's on the Couch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella, Glimmer, and Micah get therapy.

The Hordak, Octavia, and Sue Weaver scandal were finally being exposed for what it was in the eyes of the State. So many misdoings were unveiled as Adora was still in a hospital bed at the children’s mental health care floor of the hospital Angella worked at. Despite the confidentiality of the hospital upholds; it wasn’t long before nurses figured out Adora Brighten was the adoptive daughter to Angella. The infamous doctor, most nurses disliked had a suicidal child. Even worse was it the obvious case of child endangerment that loomed over Angella, and the Child protective services of Eternia county. One fact being that Hordak never filed the correct paperwork for a case to proceed. This was to cover his tracks of extortion and blackmail. The second damning fact was against Octavia—for stupidly leaving her file on Adora at the house. All of Adora’s documented and known neglect and abuse that was treated like secret knowledge and was never disclosed to Micah or Angella. The information would have benefited them greatly to help Adora adjust. All this information built a huge case against Hordak. Micah and Jeff had compiled all the evidence and Micah was ready to press all legal actions against Hordak. 

This would give Adora and her foster siblings justice. All the abuse that Hordak was hiding from C.F.S. and the extortion he was profiting off of would finally get legal ramifications it deserved. Despite all that good news, the downside came into effect. Adora’s incident with the knife and her closet, now caused for an actual child endangerment case to be brought against the Brighten family. Now Angella, Glimmer, and Micah would have to sit down with a counselor to get a better look into the family. If Adora was deemed to not be in good hands it could lead to charges against Angella and Micah, the fear of their reputation and the loss of their daughters. 

It has been almost a week since the incident. Adora was still on the children’s wing of the hospital. Her hands bandaged from the wrists up to her elbows. Her neck was sore, but it didn’t require a brace. She sat up in her bed and watched cartoons. The only people allowed to see her were nurses working on that floor. Which killed Angella. On the ground level with on the Emergency room floor working with a staff of people who had nothing but unkind things to say. It didn’t help her case that her unpleasant attitude towards Jillian and Hanna-Marie from last week bit her in the ass. They had filed a complaint against HR along with other nurses and assistants in the ER. Now Angella was sitting in the office of the human resource director, Chief Physician, and Hospital Administrator. She dreaded this. Afraid of what could happen next. She was a doctor under a contract. She couldn’t be terminated over allegations.

She sat with them and was informed by the human resource director.

“Angella…..” he began in his flamboyant voice. She felt her chest rise in nervousness. “We’ve had it come to our attention for a long duration of time about your treatment of other staff members being overly aggressive. With this being said we need to evaluate your contract with the Etherian medical group….” He trailed off looking over to the Chief Physician. 

The Chief cleared his throat and informed “We are very aware how talented you are like a surgeon and we do not wish to lose you as an employee, but that doesn’t excuse the hostility you have towards peers”

The paused to give Angella a moment to speak. Her only question being “Is this a termination meeting?” her voice trembled slightly. Something she hated herself for doing, she was in front of three men and didn’t want to cry In front of them. 

The Administrator answered “No, not at all Angella….. we would like to recommend a change in atmosphere for you with a transfer to Salineas Medical center in Mystic,” 

Angella flinched “Salineas? As on the other side of State?”

The HR director shrugged “An hour or so away”

Angella defended “I drive a half an hour to work every day—I sometimes get calls at night to fly down the highway in emergencies! You expect me to do that with an over an hour commute?”

The director of the hospital inquired “We know this is not ideal for you—but we can provide residents on extended shifts at the Hilton. The hotel has a set amount of rooms for us for patients and other medical professionals in situations that very. Please, know we have thought this through and found this to be the best option, we also request that you enroll in our teamwork workshop”

Angella shook her head in disbelief “Teamwork workshop? You mean the new hire orientation?”

The HR director corrected “No, this is a program we have to help employees after suspension to get back into the groove of the workplace”

Angella deadpanned “So on top of being transferred, I’m also suspended?”

The administrator added “Paid suspension”

“Effective as of now until when?” Angella asked.

A saddened look came over the three men as the HR manager informed “The suspension is effective as of immediately. We do ask that you clear anything in your office that—”

Angella cried “This is a termination and you three know it! You can’t even spare e some humility?”

Stunned by her outburst the HR director handed her a box of tissues and she swatted it away. The Administrator offered. “We will make this more subtle. We won’t ask for you to clear your office today, but it needs to be done before the weekend. The new ER doctor arrives Monday and he needs to be able to work in his office as soon as possible. While we clear some other things ups”

Angella nodded and looked to the door “I believe we are all done here, am I correct?”

The three men agreed. As Angella stood to leave for the door she managed to make it to her office before she bawled her eyes out. Her sobs were interrupted by the Administrator. The last person she would want to be caught crying in front of offered her some kindness.

“We’re going to announce it as a promotion. Staff won’t speculate much. I know the situation with your daughter has been tough. I had an adopted son—my wife and I did all we could for him, but his time in foster care damaged him beyond our abilities to help him. We had to admit him to behavior school for his entire primary school years,”

Angella tried her best to keep a stoic face—despite wanting to cry more after hearing that. her poor Adora. 

He offered one more piece of information “I’m familiar with John Hordak. I’m confident Micah will be able to—” he stopped himself when he realized he was upsetting her further. He cleared his throat and apologized to her. He left her to clear out her office. After speaking with him she decided not to be subtle about her leaving. She grabbed an empty box from the office supply room and filled it up with her files and notes.

She got lucky and was able to leave without any of the receptionists seeing her. 

And just like that, Angella was now officially no longer an employee of Eternia County Hospital and due to her suspension, she was not allowed on hospital grounds, so for the rest of Adora’s stay at the hospital; she couldn’t see her. 

Her bad day got worse the second she got in her car to see Micah was calling her. She hesitated to pick up. “Hello, darling?”

Micah informed her that “Glimmer’s been upset all day. She’s been in the counselor’s office for most of the day and the school asked if I can pick her up”

Angella hesitated when she asked, “Do they know…..?”

Micah exhaled “Yes, honey, they know”

Angella felt sick. Everyone in town probably thinks she’s the worst mother in the world. In reality, her issues were private. The school was informed bout the investigation and her teachers defended that the family was good and took good care of Adora. 

Heading home she was able to have some privacy to herself for a long shower and a cry. While Micah took Glimmer out for ice cream at the Sonic drive-thru. It was one of their favorite things to do together. 

The words Glimmer would say would shake Micah to his core. 

“I’m glad she’s gone!” Glimmer said looking down at her Sunday.

Micah almost choked on his milkshake “What? Sweetie, what do you mean?”

Glimmer tried her best to keep a strong face as she looked at her dad and told him “It’s good Adora isn’t around anymore. She was so weird and acted like such a baby. She was always sad about something and she didn’t know anything,” she paused for a bit to hold back the lump that was forming in her throat. “It’s good she’s gone. I mean, it’s not even like you and mom liked her, she always made issues and you talked about it like it was a problem all the time when she acted out. She was always doing something wrong”

Glimmer looked down at her ice cream; leaving her father speechless. He never assumed Glimmer would take his conversations with Angella about Adora so negatively. 

Glimmer then remarked “She didn’t like being called autistic or when you and mom talked about it” her tone became angry as she looked at Micah “Mom and you didn’t even notice all the times she would cry in her room like a giant baby! You don’t even notice it when I cry!” her eyes watered “Why did you and mommy want another daughter? You two don’t even spend a lot of time with me—and then you got another one! Why?” she broke into a fit of tears. 

Micah tried to wrap his arm around her—only for it to be shoved away. “You and mommy suck!” she cried. 

Micah moved away to watch his daughter cry. He couldn’t believe he hurt her this much, the both of them. True, Angella and him were always busy. They assumed neither girl cared about their extended work hours. If Angella wasn’t home working in her office, then it would Micah at home working in the garage. They didn’t need to rely much on babysitters. Hearing Glimmer tell him all that painted a different picture of what kind of parent he was. All this time he found himself to be an all-star dad; instead, he was just as neglectful as his parents. It hurt him to hear Glimmer say it, but she was right. Angella and he did suck. 

The rest of the family remained to themselves for the evening. All three depressed for their reasons. Angella stayed in her office while Micah stayed in the garage. Even in their most depressed state, they couldn’t bring themselves to comfort each other. They would all need to see a therapist during the week. While they prepared for the week of therapy that was court-mandated. Adora was in her hospital bed. She got to watch TV and movies. The nurses have been very nice to Adora—a familiar face came through Adora’s room for dinner time. 

“Adora?” someone called. 

It was auntie Casta.

Adora felt happy to see her, but also scared. Was auntie mad at her? Adora’s smile turned meek as she hid a little under the covers.

“Is it okay if I come in?” Casta asked. Wanting to give Adora the right to reject the company. Adora okayed for her to come in and see her. Casta sat next to her—again, asking if it was okay too. This was how Casta was able to break down the emotional walls with children. By giving control in the room helped them feel safer and that they could trust more. She asked Adora “What TV shows did you get to watch today?” slowly easing her way into the real questions, she wanted to ask her. Adora rambled on about some cartoons and snacks. She mentioned she missed the snacks at Angella’s house and Casta caught on to her using Angella’s first name instead of mom. She slipped into calling her mom when she asked about Glimmer and Micah—and if mom was happy, she was gone? Indicating to Casta that Adora was conflicted in her feelings towards all three of them.

Casta asked “Adora, are you sure you know why your still here?” she didn’t know what the doctors or the counselors have told her. Casta knew Adora was going to be admitted to the child’s psych ward at a different hospital. Adora answered her “I’m getting sent to live at a hospital” she replied sadly. She looked down at her sheets “I don’t want to live at a hospital”

Casta felt her heartache at this statement. “Sweetie, you’re not going to live at a hospital. You do need to go there for a short time, but you won’t live there”

“Promise?” Adora looked up.

Casta patted her head before kissing her forehead “I promise sweetheart”

The next day came and Glimmer got to stay home from school. Angella was suspended so she wasn’t working, and Micah needed the day off so he made sure he had no court dates for this day. All three would need to see a therapist alone. Later sessions would require seeing them together or paired off with one another. 

All three would see the same therapist at different time slots.

Angella’s session

The Therapist looked at her as Angella’s eyes darted around the room. She looked around and offered “I sense your uneasy”

Angella nodded “Yes, I guess you can say that”

“You feel you don’t need to be here?” the older woman with glasses offered. 

Angella agreed “Yes, I know why I am here, but I feel that a family therapist is not necessary”

“Why do you feel it is not necessary for you?”

Angella shifted in her seat as she stated “I don’t suffer from mental health. I’m a doctor. I have no inner turmoil or trauma. My adoptive daughter is the one suffering and needs the focus on her, not Glimmer or my husband. 

The therapist asked, “Why only Adora and not the rest of the members in your family?”

Angella scoffed and leaned back “Glimmer is a blessed child. She has everything and anything she could need or want. My husband is the same way—he spends his free time doing whatever he pleases…. The two of them have everything, they do not need to be depressed”

“And Adora?” the therapist questioned. 

Angella tenses up again as she placed her hands together on her lap “She has come from a tragic upbringing. I have always had my fears that she came from an abusive foster home. She was always so flinchy and scared of such mundane things. Tiny gestures of affection would startle her, and she always seemed to fear punishment. I assumed she found more solace in her room where she was surrounded by her toys. I thought to give her privacy and space would ideal for an autistic child”

Angella looked down at her hands briefly before making eye contact with the therapist again.

The therapist made some notes as she questioned. “When was Adora’s diagnosis of autism?”

Angella replied with a saddened tone “She was diagnosed officially before she came to live with us. I figured she had some social issues by the way she stimmed,” she looked up at the ceiling before finishing “I didn’t know what it was until I saw her fidget her hands or flap her arms. When she first met me, she—” Angella felt her throat go dry at the memory of her first encounter with her adopted daughter.

She remembered the day so well:

_She nervously walked into the building with Micah. Brushing her pants quickly and then fluffing her hair a bit before walking into the room. “How do I look?” she asked her husband. He chuckled and replied with “Beautiful, but it’s not a job interview, love”_

_Angella looked down at her black dress pants and her designer fitted blouse and sighed “I overdressed again, didn’t I?”_

_Micah grinned and shrugged; he was just in jeans and a polo._

_She gave him a worried look “Do you think I’m making her feel uneasy?”_

_Her husband disagreed “No, I think she’ll just be happy to meet us” _

_When they arrived at the waiting room, they were briefed on Adora. For some reason, the social worker informed them she wasn’t dressed well and that she seemed to be overly excited. A few other tidbits of information we're given to them about Adora—one being is she no longer uses hearing aids. A piece of information they didn’t even know was a thing until that very moment. Another once being that she was going to be tested for turrets; for they assumed Adora’s constant fidgeting was due to that. The social worker seemed so odd. It felt like she was desperately trying to convince them to not find fault with Adora’s shortcomings, and that was strange, due to the fact Adora is an eight-year-old child._

_When they finally got to meet her for the first time—Angella saw her sitting on the floor. Her little blonde ponytail looked loose and slightly messy—as if she had it pulled. Her outfit consisted of an oversized boy Adidas black shorts with a white strip down the sides and a loose fitted white T-shirt. Boyish and messing looking she had her shoes and socks off and moved to the other side of the room. She was playing Legos on the floor. _

_Angella moved closer to her—not wanting to startle her, she crouched down to be more eye level with her. She softly greeted “Hello, Adora”_

_The small girl paid her no mind as she built with her Legos. Devoid of any humming or distractions. She was truly lost in her thoughts or sampling ignoring her. Maybe her hearing was still bad? _

_Adora glanced up and jumped a bit in surprise. Her smile beamed as she asked “Your Angella?” her teeth showing; revealing a missing baby-tooth, Which Angella found adorable. Angella smiled and confirmed “Yes I am, Darling” _

_Adora excitedly turned her body around to be face to face with Angella. Looking up to see Micah too, she jumped up and down a bit in excitement to see them. Her focus going back to Angella as she exclaimed “You're really pretty! Are you going to be my new mom?!” _

_It was such a heartwarming moment. Adora was so happy to meet her. Angella smiled. Desperately trying not to cry at this moment and held out her arms for an embrace. Adora jumped into her arms for a hug. _

Once she finished retailing the therapist with her memories of first meeting Adora, she needed a moment. She was having a hard tie catching her breath with fighting off her sobs. 

The therapist handed her a box of tissues “It’s okay to be emotional for this. That was a very important day for the two of you,” her therapist assured her. 

Angella muffled through the sobs to explain “I just want to protect her. She needed a family. A good one, that could take care of her” she started to calm down. She straightened up her posture as she explained “When they told us she was a high functioning autistic; they acted as if we weren’t going to go through with the adoption—they even suggested applying for disability for Adora and made it out like it was a benefit for adopting her. It was so disgusting to know that the people who gatekeep these parentless children would treat them so poorly. I knew I never wanted her to be near those people again. I’ve done everything I could to keep her safe. I thought I was doing all the right things, raising an autistic adopted child”

The therapist noted all of Angella’s words before asking another question “When did you notice some of Adora’s tendencies? By that I mean her stimming or her lack of social formalities?” 

Angella Pondered briefly before answering “Almost instantly….. the explanation was autism,” she looked and the therapist and shook her head “She was in a new environment and new school. I didn’t want her to be outcasted. I made sure her teachers knew. I made sure Glimmer and our families knew. I sensory proofed her room from everything I could find. Autism-friendly toys, things that weren’t flashy and loud, I wanted to keep her in the safest and most controlled environment”

“Did her stimming ever bother you?” 

“No, they worried me. The biting and the rocking stim worried me. I was afraid she’d hurt herself. Other stims weren’t as bad. Most things bothered Glimmer. I thought she was happy in her room. It wasn’t until Glimmer mentioned her crying fits in her room”

The therapist looked confused at this. Angella defensibly offered “I never knew! She never told me she was upset. She never shared her feelings! I had to learn about her through her actions and my mistakes with her….. every little jolt or whimper was a new part of her I never knew. I never wanted her to feel bad about herself. I never thought for a second she felt unloved by me”

The therapist asked, “When did you know she felt unloved by you?”

Angella choked on her words again as she replied “The day at the park, right after. She had this sensory meltdown…. I never saw her do it before. She was making a scene in front of the other parents and I thought it was a tantrum. I was so angry. I snapped! I grabbed her and when we got in the car I yelled and told her to never act that way again”

A silence came over as she choked out “She told my husband that she wished she was never adopted. T-that I and Glimmer hate her”

The therapist stood up and sat next Angella to comfort her. She placed her hand on her shoulder and asked “What about the incident? Last week? Did Adora mention anything about suicide in the past?”

Angella shook her head and kept her head down as she looked down at her hands “Never, she never mentioned feeling suicidal. She didn’t even know what it was until that day. That day when she went to see Hordak, she was coaxed into saying things that weren’t true, all while she kept asking him “You’ll help my mom like me more, right” “You can make it so I see my old friends, right?” All the while she just kept the recorder on. Even after he said to turn it off”

She looked at the therapist and informed “We were all downstairs listening to it. While she was upstairs. She must have slipped downstairs to grab a kitchen knife…..”

The therapist asked, “How did you react when you saw her?”

Angella looked away and answered “Horrified. Her face was turning blue. She choked herself on the sheets when she wrapped them around her neck. Seeing the blood on her arms has given me nightmares all week….. what If she did this in the middle of the night, while we were all sleeping. I wouldn’t have been able to save her” Angella started to cry again. 

The therapist patted her back and gave her a moment to regain her composure before ending their session. 

Leaving the room, she walked back into the waiting room to see Micah and Glimmer sitting. Glimmer looked scared to see her mother crying. Angella wasn’t a parent to cry in front of her children. 

She gestured for Glimmer. 

“Baby, it’s your turn”

Glimmer stood up and walked past her mother. All the while looking at her puffy eyes. Talking to this therapist lady made her mommy cry and she didn’t like that. walking into the room she sat where her mother once was and asked the woman the first question “What did you say to make my mom cry?” the therapist looked surprised and answered her with another question “You love your mother very much, don’t you? she isn’t one to cry, right?”

Glimmer crossed her arms and replied “Mommy only cries when something bad happens”

The therapist made a note of that. Angella was one to only show distress under extreme and fatal situations. She looked up at Glimmer and asked “Glimmer, I know you know why you are here. This is your time to talk about things you don’t get to, and if there is anything that is bothering you. Please tell me,”

“I don’t want to talk about Adora” she stated. Her conversations about her adoptive sister were unpleasant, the constant hounding from social workers about Adora was exhausting. 

The therapist replied “We don’t need to talk about Adora if you don’t want to. You can talk to me about anything. It can be about school, friends, your mom or dad, or even your auntie. Anything you want” she assured her.

Glimmer took a second before agreeing “Okay,” she paused for a second before confirming “Anything I want?”

The therapist confirmed “anything you want”

“Good” Glimmer nodded. “For starters, I have a lot on my mind. I like-like three different boys in my class and all three like-like different girls. One of the girls sits next to me and she cheats during spelling test time with my answers. I don’t like that, Also my friends get to have sleepovers together and I can’t, because mommy won't let me”

Her rant ended and the therapist asked with a smile “So much to think about, and does mommy know how you feel?’

Glimmer rolled her eyes and groaned “No, mommy and daddy are always busy with work. If I tell mommy things, she makes them worse. One time a got hit in the nose with a ball at recess and she came to the school and yelled at my recess teacher. She’s not fun”

The therapist let out a light laugh “Moms can be tough, huh?”

Glimmer nodded and exclaimed “Exactly! She doesn’t get it. She’s no fun! I don’t even have a bike! She sucks at that much!”

“Oh, dear. No bike? Why is that?”

“She cants ride one, so I can't either. She didn’t say that, but I know that’s why. Daddy told me that. If she can't ride with me, she doesn’t want me to”

“Do you know how to ride a bike?”

“Auntie showed me on her farm. I can’t tell mom, or she’ll get mad”

“Mom controls the fun?”

“Yeah,”

“What about dad?”

“Daddy is fun, we have fun when mommy isn’t around. But daddy has been working on cars more and more and now with Adora being around…. He spends even less time with me”

“What do they do when they are home?”

Glimmer crossed her arms to pout a little “Work, all they do is work, mommy and daddy have an office downstairs next to the kitchen. If daddy isn’t in the office, then he is in the garage working on cars….” She trailed off for a bit in sadness. Her desire for her parent’s attention was robbed from her by the work demands her professional parents had, her father’s hobbies, and a new sister. Her last statement on the matter was to flatly state “They suck”

“All of them, mom, dad, and Adora?”

Glimmer sighed and looked up at the ceiling “No, not Adora. She’s not perfect but she gets a pass. She’s autistic, adopted, and weird. But, she’s not bad. I already talked about Adora to four people” her tone proved the subject of her adopted sister bothered her.

The older person questioned, “Does speaking about Adora bother you?”

Glimmer kept her eyes down and looked down t her hands in her lap. The same body language of guilt and sadness that Angella displayed earlier. Glimmer responded “It’s not that I don’t like talking about her…. I just don’t like why we all have to talk about her. The social worker asked me all these weird questions about if Adora liked to hurt herself and if I ever hurt Adora on purpose”

“And you never hurt her on purpose, right?” the therapist asked.

Glimmer answered “I hurt her feelings two on accident and three times on purpose”

“Why on purpose?”

Glimmer shifted in her seat. Breaking her focus off her hands she looked up at the ceiling before answering “She makes things weird. She acts like a baby. She cries about random stuff”

“Explain to me. When did she start crying?”

Glimmer didn’t hesitate to explain. Those memories were fresh in her mind. “She cried at Walmart and Target. For no reason, she would cover her ears and whine about the lights and all the sounds. She cried in the car one time because she was going to wet her pants and didn’t tell mommy she needed to go to the bathroom. She cries at home sometimes for no reason—she does all the weird autistic stuff; she bites herself and rocks around in her seat! She doesn’t do it at school! she plays normally at school. just around us she acts weird sometimes”

“Does her behavior change around different people?”

The small child shrugged. “She’s always shy and quiet. She makes friends easy. Lots of boys pay attention to her, she’s really pretty and gets attention” Glimmer’s tone sounded almost resentful. In a way that said. Why would someone with Adora’s vanity be so unwell? The therapist made her notes. Looking in the girl’s eyes she asked “How do you feel about Adora and he is in your family? How do you feel about your family now?”

A loaded question. Glimmer could answer them all easily. She was comfortable enough in the presence of the therapist to air out her grievances about her parents. She should be able to go into more detail on her family dynamic. 

Glimmer looked down at her lap again “I was happy to get a new sister. When I was in the first grade, mommy and daddy told me they wanted another baby. I was really happy….. then mommy explained to me she can’t have any more babies……. So when I was in the second grade they told me they would adopt a baby or kid my age….. They told me I was going to have a little sister. Adora was nice and always asked me what games I wanted to play and that, since I was the big sister, I got to be in charge” Glimmer smiled at the memory of her first-time meeting Adora. 

_She had come downstairs to see the blonde girl in baggy worn-out clothes. Glimmer was taken back a bit by her disheveled appearance. She did look those orphans in some sad old movie or something. Her new family members' eyes seemed to be brighter when she saw Glimmer. “You’re my new big sister! Your so pretty!” Adora exclaimed. This immediately made Glimmer like her. _

Glimmer frowned once she remembered what it was like to have to Adore around for those first few days. She was annoyed by how much Adora wanted to spend time with her. She wanted to sleep in her room, he wanted to play outside, even though that’s not a thing they do at their house, and she was so clingy. She wanted to hold hands and be near her at all times. Daddy teased about it being as if Glimmer had a taller shadow around her at all times and her parents both found it cute. Eventually, Glimmer had enough and by week two she was making it a point for Adora to get the hint—too bad she never did. Glimmer finally snapped at her. “Go away! I don’t want to play with you all day! Adora!” her words crushed the blonde girl as Adora instantly began to cry. Running to her room, her mother heard the whole thing and demanded Glimmer to apologize to Adora. forcing Glimmer to walk over to Adora’s room, seeing the blonde girl hiding under her blankets she sobbed out an apology to her big sister. “I—I promise to not bother you again, Glimmer, I—'m s-sorry!” This plead was not want Angella wanted to hear. She walked into the room and told Glimmer to say sorry. Only for Adora to jump up and embrace Angella to plead again “Please don’t punish Glimmer, I was the one being bad!” Adora begged. The sudden action caused a discomforting feeling in the air as Angella unclasped Adora’s arms around her and informed the two of them to behave. Glimmer didn’t get her actions. Why be nice to Glimmer after Glimmer was nothing but mean to her? It wasn’t much of a lesson in humility for Glimmer. She felt she could be mean without punishment. She would mock Adora’s speech when she could get away with it. Tease her for not knowing how to match her clothes or cut her food right. She would make fun of her _baby shows_ she liked to watch and would even go as far as to shout at her for stimming. Usually making Adora cry in the process. She felt guilty after she did it. She knew it was wrong, even with that knowledge she continued, it made her feel better. Adora took what little time her parents have to give them, and all Adora did in return was cry and act weird. The excuse for it all was autism. She felt her parents got a bum deal when adopting Adora. 

Glimmer felt her mouth go a little dry. The therapist took her moments of silence as a time of deep thought and didn’t want to break it by asking questions. The girl’s lip began to quiver when she remembered how she treated Adora at the park and how she tricked her into wearing that helmet. She told her friends Adora was _slow_ and needed to be treated differently. Her eyes welled up with tears when she remembered Adora’s meltdown at the park, and how all this going on was because of that. It was her fault her sister got sad and wanted to hurt herself, she knew Adora was sad and she didn’t tell mommy and daddy. She wasn’t a good big sister. She was a bully. She didn’t want to be that type of person. Bullies sit alone at lunch for being mean, bullies don’t get gold stars for being good in class, bullies are mean! She didn’t want to be mean. She should have been nicer to Adora. 

She started to let out a cry. “I—I, I wasn’t a good big sister,” she loudly began to sob.

The therapist handed her tissues and offered her a stuffed animal to cuddle. She calmed down before leaving the session. She rushed into her mother’s arms.

Micah stood up as the therapist gesture for him to come in next. He looked at his two favorite ladies and frowned. They were both visibly upset. He walked in and sat down where Glimmer once was. A plush bear was on the couch where so must have been sitting.

He nervously sat down and asked, “I take it this was Angella’s?” he joked. 

The therapist chuckled and agreed “Oh, yes, major progress after holding him”

Micah placed the bear in his lap as he sat down. She noted what Micah did as a sign of worry. His overly calm and happy demeanor showed her, that he had something on his mind, most likely seeing his wife and daughter distraught caused him a sense of unease.

She asked him “How do you feel Micah?”

He chuckled “Wow, getting right into it, I see?”

The therapist replied with a sigh “I know I’m not giving you much time to reply. We can talk about whatever you with”

“How did my girls start?” he asked concerned. His logical mindset into place at the forefront of this conversation. She could tell this was is a polite way of asking what lead them both to tears. 

“You’re worried for them?” the therapist asked.

He nodded “Yes, I’m sure you can understand why”

“The situations that have occurred have hurt all three of you—” she was cut off by his defensive corrected “Four, Adora is suffering more than any one of us could imagine. She’s a sweet child. She’s been through so much”

“I understand. You’ve all been through a lot”

He nodded “Yes, I came from a broken home. My father died early on and my sister and I were in foster care until my mother could gain custody of us again….. Angella’s parents made her go to catholic boarding school and she was bullied and abused by the nuns because she was coming from the poorest part of England. Glimmer is more fortunate. I feel she resents us for how much we work, but I don’t think she hates us fully”

“Are Angella and you open about your past with the girls?”

He shook his head “No, Angella never wanted that. She’s embarrassed by her past. She’s so put together and intimating; she doesn’t want anyone to know about her past. Not even me…. Her mother told me about her troubles in school. I only knew about her troubles in college when we were dating. she got teased for her accent and once Harry Potter books got popular during her grad school program—she got tired of being nicknamed Hermione” he chuckled at that and instantly stopped himself. “Sorry, that was mean. It’s a sore topic for her, she’d rather no one knows”

“Is there anything you keep from her?”

Micah nodded.

“Care to elaborate?”

Micah’s session lasted longer than Glimmer or Angella’s the two went out for ice cream and walked around the mall for a bit before Micah called them and let them know his session was over. The entire family was mentally drained and spent the night away from one another again. It wasn’t until bedtime; to where Glimmer knocked on their bedroom door. Teary-eyed.

Angella jumped up from bed “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

Glimmer sobbed out “I’m sad! I’m sad about Adora” she rushed not her mother’s arms.

Angella comforted her “Oh, sweetie, we’re all sad about Adora” she affirmed.

Micah sat up and confirmed “Mommy and I have been just as sad as you are about Adora. We miss her and we’re sad she isn’t home with us”

Glimmer rushed over to hug her father too. Angella sent her to bed and tucked her back in. When she got back to her bedroom, she made her way back into bed to cuddle up with her husband. Catching him by surprise. He spooned her and kissed her neck. Showing his comfort and love to her. She hummed a little in her throat before asking. “How was your session?”

Micah replied, “I cried,” he replied. 

Angella remarked “We all cried”

He kept her close to his body as he asked, “What made you cry?”

Angella answered “Adora…. her whole situation. It bothers me so much to know she was so miserable, and I didn’t know or think anything was wrong,” her voice lowered as she asked, “What kind of mother am I?” turning her body over to face Micah.

He replied “You’re a good mother. You did what you thought was right. We both need to be more attentive to the girls….”

She looked at him. He wasn’t looking at her. His eyes stared down at her chest, but not in a lewd way. He seemed lost in thought or guilty of something. She asked him “What did you and she discuss? I know Glimmer and I were a little more focused on our feelings towards Adora, but you had the longest session” the question was a loaded one. Micah wouldn’t lie to his wife. He would tell her if he felt it was right to.

He answered “Adora was a big focus point for me as well. Another being, Glimmer, and you of course. I talked about my childhood, your childhood; the parts I know at least, and I explained to her about our financial worries and sex life—”

He stopped when he saw her face sour. She pushed away from her “What? Why get into all of that? are those things that bother you?”

He sat up a bit and exclaimed “Yes! We are two very well-paid individuals and it feels like we never have enough money! I know we grew up poor, but I think we need cut down on our spending’s”

Angella shot up to “I’ve always thought that! I just never wanted to make you feel like your car center was a burden! I know that’s where all your money goes to”

Micah grabbed her shoulders “Are you kidding me! I hate the car shop! It’s been miserable these past few years and I’ve wanted to sell for two years now!”

Angella asked “Sweetheart, I’ve hated that shop for years, why didn’t you just get rid of it”

He turned away and sighed “I thought it would be like giving up, Y’know….” That was a lie. The truth was he was afraid of Angella’s critical comments and seeing him as a failure. If it wasn’t for her, he would have given up on law school. She had been with him long enough to remember when he failed at welding and contractor work. He could ruin her night if he told her she was too critical. Luckily, she didn’t dwell on this too long and laid back with him. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize this love, Whatever you want to do I will support, I love you,” she said before turning over to her side. 

He smiled and began to spoon her again. This day needed to end on a good note. Tomorrow is a new day, and tomorrow would mean Glimmer had to go to school and Micah and Angella would go see Adora. The hospital approved of Angella coming to see Adora. They just politely asked that she does not stop by her old office; the new doctor was there now. Everyone was under the impression Angella was transferred over to the hospital due to her skills being needed elsewhere. No one knew it was a punishment. 

Going towards the elevator to head up to the children’s ward; she felt a massive sense of uneasiness. She was going to have to see Adora bandaged up. She hadn’t seen her in over seven days and felt bad for not doing so. She knew Casta had visited her frequently, but it didn’t make up for the fact she hasn’t seen her. 

One their way to Adora’s room she asked Micah “What if she doesn’t want to see me?” 

Micah held his wife’s hand “Then we will give her more time” he wanted her to feel that it was all okay. Turning the corner and walking down the hall to her room they walked in to see two nurses making bracelets and having lunch with her. 

It has Jillian and Hanna-Marie. Perfuma and Mermista’s mothers. People who hate Angella enough to call HR on her, but nice enough to spend time with her daughter. 

Her body flooded with anger. How dare they! This isn’t their floor! It’s not their station, and they’re having lunch in the same room as patience! How crude! This is not protocol. As much as she wanted to lose it on them, she couldn’t, she wants their boss and her being in the hospital right now was a blessing. She had to deal with the fact that seeing Adora’s happy face was more important than her pride. Her pride and her feelings took another hit as Adora looked over to see Micah and Angella and her face dropped and so did the nurses. The two quickly sat up to leave and Angella assured them “Sorry to come without letting anyone know, I—I’ll step out so you all can finish up your playdate together” she darted out of the room; awkwardly leaving Micah to be alone with everyone. He cleared his throat and greeted them. Sitting on the opposite side of them. Adora showed him what she was working on “Miss Hanna and Miss Jillian are making bracelets with me, look, I made a pink one”

He smiled at her “It’s very pretty, Adora”

He looked over and gave the two women a sincere smile. To which they dd the same. The three adults and Adora talked for a bit. Mostly nothing, important. Adora told Micah that they have been visiting her on their lunch breaks and played with her. Drawing, making tiny craft projects, and watching TV with her. It was an incredibly kind gesture. 

Micah turned to them and asked “Thank you both so much for keeping her company, It’s incredibly kind of you two, This isn’t even your department or floor”

Jillian replied, “We like doing this, also we’ve been transferred to this floor….” She trailed off. Trying to make her tone sound as chipper as possible despite her lack of enthusiasm for this predicament. Hanna informed “The new doctor came in with a transfer of four new nurses. All fresh out of college but since he runes the E.R…. He calls the shots. Us and two other experienced nurses were placed on different floors” she sounded a little bitter at that and Miah asked. “Isn’t it a poor idea to have inexperienced nurses on such a sensitive floor?”

Both women looked at each other with knowing looks before turning back to Micah. “You would think, right?” Hanna said with an eye roll. Indicating enough to Micah that it was clear transferring Angella had a severe impact on the hospital. 

Adora asked, “Can I see mommy?” 

All three adults looked in shock, but the nurses took their leave. Both hugging Micah on the way out as he thanked them for keeping Adora company. They got along very well with Micah compared to Angella, when taking their leave, they saw her in the waiting area. Pacing. Jillian gave Hanna a look of _go talk to her _before heading in the opposite direction. Hanna cleared her throat and walked over “Dr. Brighten, Adora is asking for you” she said. Keeping her distance from her. Dreading the thought of Angella snapping at her for being in the room with her daughter in the first place. All Angella could do was stutter out a thank you, before leaving.

Hanna made her way to the elevators and shrugged “She didn’t snap, so maybe she doesn’t hate us?”

Jillian frowned “Maybe we shouldn’t have gone to HR over her….. I mean, I had no idea her adopted daughter was suffering from mental health. It explains why she was so bitchy”

Hanna sighed “If this was any other person, Angella would be the first one to tell them to knock it off and leave personal life and the door”

Jillian frowned and looked down at the floor of the elevator “True, but her daughter tried to kill herself, we can’t pretend that isn’t the worst thing for a parent to watch. Her files even say it was Angella that had to resuscitate her back to life,”

Hanna frowned when she remembered the first time, she needed to perform the Heimlich maneuver on Mermista as a toddler. She couldn’t sleep for days after seeing her daughter almost choke to death. She of all people should be able to relate when it comes to saving their child’s life. Even if she didn’t like Angella as a boss, she had to be empathetic towards her struggle. She almost lost her daughter and that was sad enough.

Angella made her way into the room. Heart pounding in her chest and her eyes were already glossed over from the tears she wanted to fight back so desperately. Entering the room, she saw Micah next to her. She walked over to the two empty seats and sat in one. She looked down at Adora’s bandaged arms before looking into her eyes. She recognized the nervous expression. Angella felt her lip quiver a little as Adora fidgeted with her hands and looked up at her “Hi, mommy” 

Her voice cracked as she responded “Hello, Adora, sweetie…. How are you?”

Adora had turned a little shy as she squirmed in her seat a little to reply. “Fine, I made new friends with the nurses, they’re very nice. The therapist lady is nice too,” she said. She looked down to see Angella’s hands in her lap looked down to her own hands. Her bandaged up wrists must be upsetting mommy. Micah cleared his throat and stood up “I’m going to get a soda, I’ll leave you two alone for a bit, be back soon girls, love you both”

The two were left alone and Angella placed her hand on Adora’s and asked “Sweetie, does it hurt anywhere?”

Adora shook her head “Not today, it doesn’t. The nurse asks me that every morning” she lifted her arms “It’s not sore unless I poke at them”

Angella nodded. She moved her seat closer and asked “Adora, is it okay if I give you a hug” it felt so rushed out and so out of place in the conversation. It was almost a plea. She needed to hold her. She was tortured by the sight of her being bandaged up to her elbows. 

Adora couldn’t tell that Angella was distressed and happily approved. “Yes, I like hugs”

Angella held her close. Moving her body forward to hug her. With no control left she silently sobbed. Emotional and heartbroken over what has all transpired. She almost lost her adoptive daughter and the poor baby is so innocent and clueless to the severity of what is to happen next. 

Adora wrapped her arms around her and asked, “Mommy are you sad?”

Angella nodded and pulled away. revealing the tears running down her face to Adora. the small child stared wide-eyed as she saw how hurt Angella was. It was the same sad face Catra would make if her feelings got hurt or if she was beaten by Sue or the older kids. She asked her “Why are you sad?”

Angella leaned back in her chair and wiped her eyes “I’m sad because of what happened to you, baby. I—Adora—I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry you felt like you—” she stopped as her sobs softly took over. She turned her face away so that Adora couldn’t see her tears. The blonde child got out of bed and hugged Angella again, she offered “I’m sorry I made you sad”

It was a semi-short visit. Adora cuddled up to Angella and told her about her bracelets and coloring books she’s done since she got to the hospital. She told her that she wasn’t looking forward to going to the _other_ hospital. It devastated Angella to know she couldn’t help the situation. She had no say in Adora going to the mental hospital for kids. It broke her heart. But it was mandated by the State. The only minor solace they have is knowing that Hordak was in hot water and in her time at the hospital; Adora had made a breakthrough and opened up to a therapist and told them everything—and by everything—she meant everything. All the past abuse at Sue and the poor treatment she suffered was out in the open. Tomorrow is a new day and a plan. Hordak is only under the impression his recorders were forced. He has no idea that people the State is aware of his extortion. 


	9. Asylum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora will start to be tested to her mental limits while Angella and Micah are away.

She got out all her goodbye hugs from Nurse Hanna and Nurse Jillian before she had to go to the other hospital. She was told she would only need to be at that hospital for a short time. She hoped a short time meant only a day or so, and then she could go home. Mommy had been coming every day to see her. Daddy did too. Glimmer came once, but she started crying and that in return made Adora cry. After a short amount of time away. She arrived at the new hospital around nighttime. She ate dinner at the other hospital. 

This hospital didn’t look or smell like the old hospital mommy worked at. 

This one was darker; the walls were dirtier, and it smelled like pee in the hallways. 

She heard crying from a room near her as she was asked to sit on a bench so they could take her blood pressure and check her heartbeat. 

After that, they sent her to bed.

She was in a bedroom with three other girls. She couldn’t see what they looked like, but at least she wasn’t sleeping alone. At the hospital, she had doctors and nurses around her all night, so she never felt scared. Here they had “staff” all through the hallways and the hallway lights stayed on. 

A staff member told her. “If you get too cold, we can bring you more blankets, if you need the bathroom, you need to ask someone in the hallway and they will walk you to the bathroom, okay?”

Adora nodded as she laid on the hard bed. The room was cold, and she now felt a sense of no comfort. Her body shivered as she felt uneasy. This feeling reminded her of Sue’s home. The whispers of men in the hallway made her uneasy. Like when the teenage boys in Sue’s house would come into the girl’s bedrooms at night. They would ask to do “S” word stuff with the bigger girls and then the boys would get under the covers with the teenage girls they would do some weird dance under the sheets. Catra and she never understood what they were doing. Catra said they only dance under the blankets because they are really bad at regular dancing. 

Sometimes boys would try to get in their bed, but Catra and Adora would always buddy up. Lonnie sometimes had boys in her bed. Lonnie said she thought one of the teen boys might have seizures like Kyle because all he would do was move his body back and forth and his pajama pants would touch her pajama pants. 

She didn’t like the sound of men talking. It took a while to get used to daddy. He was big, strong, and had a beard. He looked intimidating. Adora was timid around Micah for a good five days when she first moved in with them. He had a booming voice, but he was nice. He called her nice names like “Bay girl” “Sweetie” and “Kiddo” he also was the nicest when Glimmer told Adora she was annoying and made her cry; he was there to be kind to her. He made Glimmer say sorry. She thought her new dad was the nicest man ever. He was extra nice to her after the incident. 

_When she had her sensory overload at the park, she cried all night. At dinner, she drank a lot of water due to her throat hurting her so much. The consequence was something she tried to hide on her own. _

_Adora had a nightmare that night. She dreamed of Angella yelling at her some more, threatening to send her to a group home. Fearing she might get beat or worse at a place like that—Sue had warned her all her life what happened to bad kids in foster care, they get sent to group homes. The fear made her toss and turn in her sleep. _

_She awoke to find herself on her stomach. Warm and wet. She jumped up to see she had an accident. A really bad one. Her pajama bottoms and sheets were soaked. She got off her bed to see it didn’t get on her duvet. But her sheets had a big wet spot on them. She was panicked. Her heart raced as she began to sweat and shake. It was dark out. It was three in the morning. She would be so bad to wake Angella and daddy up. She peaked out of her bedroom. Her parents’ bedroom was next to the linen closet. If she opened that closet, she might wake them and anger them. She took her buddle of sheets and walked down to the basement to do laundry. _

_This basement wasn’t like other basements. This was one was nice. Clean smelling and had a carpet. It had a pool table and a TV in it. Daddy called it his “Man cave featuring a Laundry room” Adora turned the light on and walked down quietly. She saw the washer machine was empty. But the dryer wasn’t. Adora folded the towels neatly on the folding table near the dryer. Still in her wet pajama bottoms. Unaware of who else was awake in the house. Micah had woken up briefly to go to the restroom. He had made a stop downstairs to get a snack. Since Angella wasn’t awake to scold him, he could do whatever he wanted. _

_Walking past the kitchen he saw the basement light was on. Absently opening the door to turn the light off—he stopped when he heard the sound of movement. Curious, he walked downstairs to see his adoptive daughter. _

_Adora had been caught red-handed putting her sheets in the washer machine. Her wet pants still on her. She turned in horror to see Micah standing at the top of the stairs. She was so scared that her only flight reaction was to drop to the floor in the fetal position and cover her head—embracing for a beating as Sue would give her. Whenever the smaller kids had an accident, they were responsible for cleaning their messes. If they weren’t doing it fast enough, they would get hit. Adora and Catra were too slow on time getting the dirty sheets off their bed one time and sue spanked them both. Making both girls cry._

_Adora was scared. Daddy had bigger hands then Sue. He was stronger. He could hurt her badly if he wanted to. She was too scared to make a sound as she trembled under his gaze. He rushed down the stairs. Scared that she was hurt. _

_“Baby? Baby girl, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he asked kneeling, He could smell the faintness of urine and saw her bottoms were wet around the crotch and her backside. He touched the top of her head and she flinched and whimpered. _

_“Adora, sweetie what’s wrong? Did you have an accident?” _

_She looked up. Her eyes filled with tears. She nodded and covered her face again. She braced for a painful swat or kick. Micah instead asked her. “Please get up, baby”_

_She did as he said. More scared. If he hits or spanks her standing up it hurts more. She pulled her shirt down a little to hide her wet stain as much as she could. Before he could offer her any kind words she weakly stated. _

_“I’m sorry for being bad. I won't cry or yell when you do it”_

_It?_

_He stepped back as she started to remove her wet pants and underwear and place them in the washer machine. He turned away and grabbed a fresh towel to cover herself. He awkwardly stated “Uh, sweetie, it's best to be a little modest around boys—I’m—your dad, but that doesn’t mean I should see you undressed”_

_He turned to see her covered with the towel around her waist. She was confused. She didn’t know what he meant by that. The only thing she could say was “I thought you were going to hit me for having an accident”_

_He felt his stomach turn at the thought of hurting a child. She sat on the floor and kept her low. Afraid to look up and upset him any further. She tightly closed her eyes and tensed her body. She felt unsure of is next move and if she had upset him. _

_Micah extended his hand to her “Sweetie, Daddy will make your bed. Don’t worry about your sheets, I’ll make sure they get clean” She stood up. Still afraid. She begged him “Please don’t tell mommy!”_

_It disturbed him, but he didn’t say anything to Angella the next day. She noticed the folded towels and thanked him. _

_It was a horrible memory. _

Her morning of remembering it made things even worse for her first day in the mental hospital. 

She woke up to realize she had wet her bed. 

She had slept in, so her roommates were already out of the room. 

A staff member came to wake her for breakfast and saw Adora laying in her damp sheets. Scared. Adora looked up. Hoping to get a comforting face, like daddy. Instead, she received the displeased look of a woman with sort hair and tattoos on her arms. The woman sighed and radio called for assistance “Room 412, yellow code, patient 0119”

She then closed the door and ordered Adora to undress. This felt more humiliating than when daddy caught her. She weakly offered “I’m sorry”

The tattoo lady didn’t bother to acknowledge Adora as the door opened and a nurse with a bag and fresh linen came in. the nurse spoke to the tattooed women. In their whispers, Adora heard them say she can’t stay on this floor due to be a liability. 

The nurse turned to Adora. she sternly examined the nude child. She grabbed her arm and examined her scars. She handed her a blue pair of pajama pants and a matching top. Along with that were a pair of thick grey socks and a strange pair of underwear. She commanded. “Dress”

Adora did so quickly. The nurse and staff member gave each other knowing looks. The tattooed woman mouthed the words _“Trouble”_ as she left. The nurse asked Adora “Do you urinate yourself on purpose?”

Adora flinched as she replied “No, I don’t”

The nurse then walked over to one of the walls in the room and made a spreading gesture as she asked, “Do you fecal smear?”

“I don’t know what that is” Adora answered. 

The nurse scoffed. “Very well then, from now on you wear the diapers until we see results of improvement,” she said as she opened the door to the hallway “You will eat breakfast in a different room. As for tonight…. We will move you to a single bedroom” she said before leaving down the hall. She told a staff member to take Adora to the West room for breakfast. 

Adora was taken down a hallway. Looking around she saw faded drawing and drawings on the wall. She heard more crying. While walking down a hallway she and the staff were stopped by another child. A small boy being restrained by two larger men. The boy kicked and screamed and bit their arms as the lifted him from the ground and back into the room where he escaped. Adora flinched and gasped at this. She looked up at the man, who gave her no indication that what they had just seen was out of the ordinary. 

The breakfast room was told to sit down between the other girls. They were both scary looking. One had a helmet on and the other was taller than Adora and much heavier. As she sat between the two a staff member handed her a plate for food. She winced at it. A small pancake with a drop of syrup. A squeezable yogurt and a carton of juice. She turned to ask a question about silverware and was shushed; when she turned back the bigger girl stole her pancake and the girl the helmet spit on her shoulder. Adora felt her lips tremble. Scared, sad, and hungry she ate her yogurt and drank her juice. After that, she was escorted to another room. It was a smaller room with no roommates. She was ordered to rest on the bed. She was told that she will have a therapist visit her later in the day. She was saddened by this. Her new room was nothing like her old room in the nice hospital, no nice nurses and no TV, she had nothing to keep herself entertained. 

She sat on her bed. Crying softly. Regretting everything. If she never tried to suicide, she wouldn’t be here, if she never had autism, her family would have liked her more, if she never said yes to wanting to be adopted by Angella, she would still be with Catra; safe at Sue’s house. 

Sue warned her. Things aren’t always greener on the other side. 

\--

Sue not a liked name in the Brighten household. But for the asylum (or what it is kindly referred to as the children's mental health clinic) she was a saint! As she walked into the clinic, her cigarette smell lightly wafted in the air as the staff and nurses came to greet her. She was the selfless and giving foster mother, aiding in helping the staff and her former foster kids in need. She was a teacher and qualified C.N.A and would read and help tutor kids who were out of school. She walked over to the tattooed woman and put on her signature show of being a bleeding heart of worry and love for the _children._

She flung her arms out to embrace the women “Oh! Debbie, isn’t it terrible? Octavia was terminated last week”

Debbie returned the hug and replied “I know, how crazy is it? She left private documents at a family’s house, then tried to blame Hordak on not disclosing details to the family”

Sue moved away and pretend to look shocked “Oh, my goodness, how insane”

Debbie also commented “The files claimed you were an alleged abuser! It was so insane for anyone to think you of all people would hurt a child”

Sue nodded and placed her hand on Debbie’s shoulders. Trying to act like a stern and loving motherly figure “Well Debbie, Octavia was not a qualified candidate for childcare. I don’t fault her and trying to blame others, karma came for her and now she must reflect on how she handles herself as a person, that is all I can say on the matter”

She moved back and asked “Now, I know it goes against protocol, but I know my poor dear Adora is here and I need to see her, as a woman who raised her from infancy I am far more a mother to her than –_Angella_—could ever dream of”

Debbie nodded and escorted her to Adora’s room. 

“You’re probably the best person to ever come into that child’s life, you know…” Debbie said.

Sue hummed a little as she saw other nurses and staff wave at her excitedly. “Oh, Debbie, I don’t wish to be vain, but I know, I am the best thing to ever happen to Adora, and I always will be” 


	10. slow recovering

The Brighten parents sat in Jeff’s office as he went over all the new developments with Micah and Angella over Adora’s case. He sighed as he slid the file over to Angella to read first. “As you can figure out,” he began “Hordak may have decided not to extort you, due to figuring out more about you”

Micah raised a brow “Meaning, he didn’t know anything before he tried to make a case against us?”

Jeff replied “He might have confused you two for just being a basic nuclear family. Under Octavia’s records, she had you mislabeled as an accountant and receptionist” he glanced over to see Angella roll her eyes. She handed the files to Micah “So, Octavia was present at the social worker meetings but not very good at listening” Angella replied in an annoyed tone. She handed Micah the file and asked Jeff “What will our plans be now?”

Jeff sat forward as he smiled “Well, the good news is, all the allegations from the state have been dropped. Due to Octavia’s lack of evidence filing and her leaving all of Adora’s private files in your home—she was terminated immediately; she did try to appeal her termination by explaining that Hordak had forced her into not filing certain reports. The only thing that does for us gives us an opening for a different legal route against Hordak, but it won’t involve his role in Child Services”

“What does that mean?” Micah asked.

“If his extortions of the past are true, it means he received a lot of personal checks. No taxes paid on these said “gifted” payments and my colleague from the IRS can back us up when he runs through the motions for an audit”

Angella and Micah looked at each other for a brief moment before Micah confirms “So, we can’t sue him, but the IRS can audit him? Where’s justice in that?”

Jeff sighed “It will be a long road for justice, this is why the legal system is implemented the way it is…. Once he’s audited, he will have to explain the influx in personal checks, once that is questioned his professional control in child services will be investigated, and then charges placed on him by the IRS then the State. He will most likely serve more time in jail for tax reasons than his misuse of child and family resources”

Angella’s eyes narrowed at this statement “You're telling us he won’t receive punishment for extorting families, but he will for not reporting deposited checks?”

Jeff nodded, “Yes, it may feel unfair, but he will be stopped”

“How long with this take?” Angella asked.

“About six months for an audit case to be made, then probably another year for an investigation”

Angella frowned at this. Micah held her wife’s hand as he asked. “And what about Sue Weaver?”

Jeff shook his head “No ties to illegal activity. Octavia wrote that Sue has questionable cases against her, but nothing is filed and reported correctly. She has a lot of influence on the children’s mental health community. She teaches at the children’s asylum and—”

He was stopped by Angella’s panicked cry “She works for the asylum?!”

He jumped a bit when he heard her accent grow heavy. “Uh, yes. Angella she is an actual certified teacher. Her resume is amazing”

Angella turned to Micah “Do you think she will try and contact Adora?”

Jeff interrupted “Not likely, that would be a breach in Adora’s patient rights as a minor, and I doubt the asylum would be stupid enough to break a law like that”

\--

Sue walked into Adora’s tiny room and stood over her. Adora’s face beamed as she saw the familiar face. “Sue!” she cried. “Is Catra with you?”

Sue felt the smile tug at her lips as she thought of so many mean things to say to the young girl. She kneeled to Adora’s eye level and made a “_tsk” _sound as she began “Oh, Adora. My once sweet and well-behaved girl. Catra is being so well behaved without you around. She’s not misbehaving and landing herself in a place like_ this_” she examined Adora’s arms and sighed “Oh, my girl…. How could you be such a burden to your new family”

She saw Adora’s hurt expression as the young girl pleaded “I—'m not a bad girl! You know I’m not a bad girl!”

Sue stood up and sighed “Oh, my dear, I thought you were. But, for you to land in a place like this, that means your in poor behavior,” she examined Adora’s hurt expression briefly as she held Adora’s arms “See what you did? You hurt yourself. Oh—poor Angella and her _family_. You must have upset them so much”

Adora whimpered “Angella— I mean, mommy, was sad when I was in the hospital, she—”

“You made her sad! Oh, Adora…..” Sue let of Adora’s arms to let them fall to her side “How awful, why would you do that”

Adora whimpered “I didn’t want her to be sad! I was sad and I didn’t know what to do!”

She stimmed nervously as her senses were running into the same mode of panic. All she could do was fidget and squirm under Sue’s gaze of disapproval. 

Sue stood up and looked down at Adora “What a shame you’ve misbehaved so much” she proceeded to turn away. Adora grabbed on to Sue’s hand and begged “Please Sue! I don’t want to be here!”

Sue smirked as she patted Adora’s hair “Oh sweet child, where do you want to be?” she asked. Hoping the answer was with her. Sue had some connections that could make that work. 

Adora answered, “I want to be with mommy, daddy, and Glimmer!” 

Sue’s face soured at this notion. She gripped Adora’s hand. Making it hurt as she scolded “What about me? Catra? and your other foster sibling? How could you be so selfish and leave them, Adora! you were selfish when you made those cuts on your arms and now you think you can weasel your way back after you made them go through all of this!” she shouted. 

No one was around to hear this. All the staff trusted Sue too much to think to check on her. 

Adora started to cry. 

Sue scoffed as she walked out of the room. 

She knew she got Adora riled up. She knew Adora would start banging her head, biting her arms and throwing herself on the ground crying. She knew this from experience. If she or Catra got in trouble, Sue would focus her energy on only hurting Catra and she would make Adora watch and Adora would engage in self-harm under the stress of watching her friend get hurt. 

She felt disturbingly satisfied with what she just did. She saw Debbie at the end of the hall. She smiled and walked over to her.

Debbie asked, “How is she?”

Sue smirked “Oh, just fine. Are you on break soon?”

Debbie replied, “Yes, I’m on break in five-minutes, wanna go for a smoke with me?”

“Loved to” she replied. Knowing Adora was self-harming again. Without anyone around Adora proceeded to scratch and bite at her arms. All the thoughts of how much Angella and the rest of her family being sad or upset with her placed her in a state of panic. If she can’t go back with them, where would she go? Would she stay here? She didn’t like her, she was hungry, un-showered and forced in a diaper at age eight! She didn’t want to live here! She was locked in her room. The lock was on the outside. She cried “I want out! Let me out!” she ran full force into the door to get anyone’s attention. No one heard the noise she was making she continued to run full force into the door. The stitches on her arms were coming undone. Reopening the wounds due to the full force she was going at. She ran again into the door, only to trip and fall face-first into the metal door. Causing her nose to bleed. She cried in pain as her sensory overload took control of her adrenaline and made her continue her desperate attempt at an escape. All the while, bleeding over her pajamas and crying. 

\--

Angella nervously sat in the passenger seat of the car. Looking at her cellphone in annoyance. “Do these damn people ever pick up the phone?” she questioned to Micah as they drove to the asylum for Adora. 

Micah glanced over to his wife. When she gets stressed out on situations like this, she tends to show her the most unflattering side. The woman can keep her cool in extreme stress in a surgery room; but things, like missing an exit on a highway, forgetting to buy something at a store, or being upset with Glimmer, can undo her calm nature. Adora has triggered an all-new level of anxiety for some reason. Micah knew it was related to guilt, and that she was overbearing and insensitive to Adora’s autism. He had his secrets to worry about too when it comes to Adora; he had his regrets and doubts about his parenting. 

Arriving at the hospital, Angella made a face of disapproval “It’s unwelcoming”

The asylum: or to what it was more politely referred to as the County mental health school for children. To where Angella put it, a warehouse for the most venerable children in the state. The hospital has no good reputation among other medical professionals. It was ordered that Adora gets cleared by a therapist here, but now that charges have been dropped, Angella and Micah can take her home after she sees a therapist. 

Walking in they were not greeted by anyone. A little worrisome is to how easy it was for them to walk into the front door without needing to be buzzed in. walking down the hall they saw the sign for the main office. They heard the sound of women laughing at the reception desk. 

The moment they saw Angella and Micah they took their time to ask them what they needed “Can we help you?” a woman asked rudely.

Angella glared at him as she answered “We are here for our daughter, she’s a patient. Adora Brighten”

The woman rolled her eyes “Why didn’t you call?”

Angella snapped “because you wouldn’t answer the phone!”

Her aggression silenced the other women, who promptly decided to leave to their stations. The receptionist stuttered “Well, it must have been my break”

Angella raised a brow “Well I hope next time you ignore six phone calls it isn’t something important”

The woman nervously called through a walkie-talkie “Can we have patient 0119 readies; her mother is here for a visit”

“We’re taking her home!” Angella corrected.

The receptionist nervously answered “She can’t leave until a doctor clears her”

“I’m a doctor!” Angella yelled.

Micah looked around. Angella was making a bit of scene as many of the staff members were not even daring to walk near the reception office. 

\--

Two male staff members went to Adora’s bedroom. They realized it was locked from the hallway. They opened the door to see Adora on her bed crying. They called her “Adora? come on. You need to get up. You have a visitor”

The staff member walked over to tab her on the shoulder. She wasn’t moving. Her face was flushed, and tears were stained to her face. Her blanket had blood smeared on it. The man nervously whispered to the other guy “Dude, her stitches came undone”

“How?” the other man asked as he examined Adora’s motionless body. He placed his hand on her forehead and commented “Kid’s got a fever”

The guys looked at each other “You know the kid’s mom is that British doctor from the State Hospital, right?”

“Shit….”

\--

Angella sat impatiently “What is taking so long?” she shot a look at the receptionist. The woman avoided her gaze as she radioed again to the staff to bring Adora to the front office. A man rushed down the hall and information the receptionist “We need an ambulance for 0119”

Angella leaned over to look at what the two were talking about. Micah looked down at his phone to see was going off and it was Jeff calling him.

“Sweetheart I need to take this,” he said as he stepped out into the hall.

\--

The staff panicked as they made a call for 9-1-1. Angella felt her stomach turn a little as the thought of it might being Adora in harm.

A person then muttered “That is her mother”

And with that, Angella sprung up “Where is Adora!” she demanded.

The male staff member ignored her.

She then raised her voice “Where is she!?”

He turned to her and told her “It’s classified, we’ll tell you when we transport her”

“Transport her to a hospital, she needs a doctor”

“I’m a doctor!” she explained.

He looked over to the receptionist in confusion as Angella took out her medical license card “I’m Doctor Angella Brighten of Grayskull State Hospital!”

All four looked at her with shock and slight fear. The guy didn’t believe his other co-worker when he told him she was a doctor. A very well-known doctor. She pleaded with them to escort her to her. 

She was in Adora’s small room. Looking at her, the child wasn’t moving, but a pained expression took over her face as she was sweating.

Adora couldn’t hear much. She thought she could hear the sounds of her mother talking to her. In a frantic way. But she couldn’t wake herself up to talk to her.

\--

Mica’s phone call was somewhat good news. Jeff informed him that he knew someone interested in buying Micah’s family car shop and was also willing to buy all the cars on the lot with that. The other good piece of news was that everything on their family being investigated had been purged from any private or public record. A good perk in having a friend in high places, but a bad one, as it only proved that rich friends, help rich friends. 

He hung up his phone to see the lights of an ambulance coming towards the building. He was ready to walk back in as he was rudely bumped into by Debbie and Sue, who paid him no mind as they didn’t know who he was. 

\--

Two weeks have passed.

Adora didn’t remember anything from what had happened. To her, it felt like a bad dream. When she woke up, she was home. In her nice bedroom Glimmer and Angella set up for her. Mommy was being nice to her. Everyone was. She went back to school and everything felt somewhat normal. She desperately wanted all the pain to go away, from her arms to her past. In therapy, she blocked out the memories of Sue, as she finally hard resentment towards her. The positive is that Adora was moving on, the downside was, she was unable to give any statement to abuse allegations if Angella and Micah wanted to move forward with charges against Sue. Adora was sad in some ways. She was happy to be home. All her friends as a school missed her. She got hugs, candy, and drawings from her classmates, who thought she was sick with the flu. Adora knew it was a lie to them, but she didn’t want to tell any of her friends it wasn’t true. She felt ashamed for what she did and all that had happened.

\--

No one at the Country club understood Angella or Micah’s situation all that well. The rumor was they are getting a massive settlement for a scandal related to their _“Problem child”_ as few knew about their daughter almost dying in the children’s hospital. The other crazy rumor was Angella punched someone, but no one knew if that was fact or not. With all the friends Angella and Micah allegedly had through the Country club community; no one cared much for them as people. They were grateful for how involved and organized Angella was, but when it came to Angella asking for others to help donate for the foster care charities—they all declined to help. Instead, they all donated to the Country Clubs “Ferrari’s in Phoenix” retreat over helping needy kids. She still kept on her brave face. Holding her head high as she brought Adora and Glimmer with her for _kids swim_ at the club. Her close “friends” were surprised at how well behaved and well spoken Adora was. Their only knowledge of autism being children on the spectrum are loud, disruptive, and problematic. 

Poolside three women gossiped about them. These were some of Angella’s closest Country club friends. And they were dubbed by the club _“The gals” _Namely since the three had rich husbands and Micah and Angella were both rich alone and together, they were among the wealthier members. Being coined the frugal couple, she didn’t flaunt their money too much, their daughter went to public school.

“You think she’s offended by what I said yesterday?” A middle-aged woman in a sun hat and a blue one-piece bathing suit asked. Referring to Angella.

Another woman. Middle-aged, fake tanned skin and dyed bleach blonde hair looked up from her magazine to turn to look at the other person through her designer sunglasses and smirked “You forgot her adoptive daughter’s name and called her the retarded one,” the woman then looked down at her magazine “Pretty sure, she’s a little miffed”

Another woman in a red bikini and pixie brown haircut in the pool commented “Angella doesn’t hold grudges, but if you see her, I’d recommend saying sorry. According to the member's service director, they won’t be coming around much longer”

“What? Why” the fake blonde asked.

The woman in the pool shrugged “She wants more time with her children…..she—” she stopped herself as she saw Angella come in with both her daughters. Both girls had on children sized fluffy white robes with the club initials embroidered on them. Adora was holding Angella’s hand and with her other, she had a juice box. She shushed the other women. All three nervously looked over to greet them before taking their leave. 

Angella could sense their obvious discomfort as they left. The one with the blue bathing suit looked down at Adora and tried to be as sincere as someone like her could be “Hello, _Adora_, how are you?”

Making a point to have Angella hear that she did remember her daughter’s name. Adora with the lack of nuance in this awkward situation just pointed over to the doors and stated “Hi, that guy in the shorts says I can have all the juice boxes I want”

Angella and Glimmer looked at each other, internally embarrassed for Adora’s lack of _mean girl_ etiquette. The woman froze in discomfort for a moment as the one with glasses chimed in “That’s good to know, thank you Adora” she then turned to her friends to signal them to leave but also mouthed to Angella an apology for doing so.

Adora looked up at her mother and commented “Your friends are nice” before taking off her robe. Her bathing suit to reveal her green one-piece, Glimmer had a purple one-piece on with a midsection with a glittery design while Angella wore a navy-blue piece. She looked to see Adora’s scars were still visible. She knew in time as she grew, they would fade, she would not be able to see them in time. Part of her was relieved that her so-called friends left. 

Adora walked around the pool nervously, unsure to get in. Glimmer turned to her mother and remarked “My friends are nicer” before walking to the pool stairs into the water.

She rolled her eyes at her daughter’s slight attitude but couldn’t deny the facts. Glimmer had no tolerance for disingenuous people, Unlike Angella; whose career is partially devoted to personalities like theirs, she was fortunate to know her daughter was more like Micah, as he paid no mind to the more uppity men at the club. 

Glimmer called for Adora “Use the stairs with me” as her little sister did as she said. Stepping in slowly to the pool. It was a heated pool, so it wasn’t nearly as cold as expected. Angella nervously watched as Glimmer started to swim off to the other side of the pool while Adora nervously stayed on the third step to the pool. She was now up to her elbow’s knees in the water. She was grateful Glimmer didn’t push her to go all the way in. Glimmer had grown to be more sensitive to Adora after all that has happened. Angella stepped into the water and offered her hand to Adora “Want to come in more”

Adora nervously looked at the water and asked “Can I stay right here? Do I have to go in deeper?”

Angella shook her head “No, sweetie, you don’t have to” 

Adora nodded and replied “Okay, I—I wanna stay right here then”

Her voice slightly saddened. She moved closer into the water slowly up to her shoulders is where the last step was. The pool was fairly deep as most kids to the members used the outdoor kiddie pool. With no one around, Angella and Glimmer swam back and forth. Both looking over to see Adora. moving her hands in and out of the water and slowly moving from side to side. 

It didn’t dawn on Angella until she saw by Adora’s nervous face that—she most likely didn’t know how to swim.

Angella made her way back over to Adora and asked “Adora, do you want me to hold you in the water when we go close to the deep end?”

Adora seemed worried by this but nodded. If this was Sue offering this to Adora, she would need to fear Sue letting go and make her fear sinking. It scared her to think of how Sue treated her the one time they went swimming. She pushed all the kids in and made them “Swim” but all it garnered was crying six-year-olds coughing up salty lake water.

Angella was different. Adora could trust her. She wrapped her arms around her mother and her legs around her waist. She was scared but clung to her for dear life. Angella could sense her discomfort and reminded her “If you want to get out, let me know, I’ll make your stay in”

She said as she moved back deeper into the water. Adora could feel Angella kicking from below her. Her mom was keeping her shoulders above water to make Adora more comfortable. She rested her head on her mother’s shoulder as they swam to Glimmer. 

The three of them played more. Adora finally getting more and more comfortable to where she tried to swim a little on her own. Angella coached her into dunking her head underwater and swimming towards her in the shallow end. She did this again and again. Adora was relived, it felt rewarding to get to swim up and get a hug from mommy. 

“I love you, mommy,” she said as she nuzzled up to Angella again. 

Angella felt her a strong urge to cry but just kissed her forehead instead. 

After a good hour of swimming, the girls were getting tired and they got out of the pool. Drying off and changing back into different clothes Adora still rushed to Angella’s side. 

A short car ride homemade both girls tired. Adora’s new medication made her sleepy as it made her slightly more hyper in the day, but it made her crash around the early evening. After five juice boxes and some pasta, she was ready for bed. Angella tucked her and turned on her night light. 

“Do you want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?” her mother asked. 

Adora nodded. Angella sat on Adora’s little bean bag chair next to her bed. She moved in closer to her so she could rub Adora’s head. In a few minutes, Adora was asleep. It was pretty early. Only 6:30 pm. Glimmer had school and wanted to stay up late. By 8 pm she was asleep.

The next morning Angella woke up to greet the girls. Glimmer groggily woke up. Her baby girl was no morning person. She went to wake up Adora, to see her blonde daughter was already awake and her sheets on her bed were missing. Judging by the absence of her Bedliner; Adora had another accident. She frowned at knowing how much it upset Adora to wet the bed. She went downstairs to the laundry room to see Adora in her blue My Little Pony bathrobe. Adora looked up with a sad face “I’m sorry mommy, It happened again….” Her little eyes watered up as she admitted to her shame.

Angella went over to hug her “It’s okay, baby. Was it from a bad dream?” now that some of Adora’s vivid night terrors trigger them. The other reason being that Adora’s new medication makes her thirsty and makes her fall into a deep sleep and is unable to wake herself up in time to use the bathroom. 

Adora shook her head “No bad dreams, I’m sorry mommy”

Angella assured Adora that nothing was wrong as she went back upstairs. 

Seeing both Glimmer and Micah in the kitchen. 

Glimmer commented “Adora peed her bed again”

Angella shot her a glare.

Glimmer defended “It’s true! She did!”

Micah snorted at this exchange. Glimmer walked over to the sink and took a plastic cup and filled it with water. Micah walked over to her and asked. “What are you doing?”

Glimmer turned to him and replied. “I’m gonna pour this on my bed and tell her I peed too, so she won’t feel left out”

“Glimma!” her mother yelled.

Micah laughed and offered “Pour some and out bed too, Glimmer!”

“Miah!” Angella cried.

“Extra on mommy’s side!” he jokingly replied.

Glimmer shrugged and attempted to walk out of the kitchen. 

Angella stopped her. “Oh, no you don’t young lady”

Adora was coming up from downstairs and was about to walk into the kitchen when—

Slash!

Glimmer without a second thought slashed the cup of water in Angella’s crotch to make it look like she had peed herself in the middle of the kitchen.

When Adora turned the corner, she became shocked at what she just saw.

Glimmer with no mercy pointed and declared “Mommy peed herself, C’mon Adora, let’s pick you out a cute outfit today”

Micah fell to his knees in laughter as his wife stood there with soaked pants from cold faucet water. He slowly got up, barely able to speak from his laughing “S-sorry, I gotta get—up—or I’ll wet my pants! Ha-ha Ha!”

She said through her teeth “Tell Glimmer she is grounded after school”

He nodded as he laughed. Leaving her alone in the kitchen she thought about what was next to come. 

Today she had therapy. 

Tomorrow she had to meet with her bosses and a lawyer for them, and the day after was Sue’s lawyer. She glanced down to her bruised right knuckle and thought about what had happened that day at the asylum. 

_Walking behind the EMT’s as they took Adora out of the building on a stretcher, she caught the sight of Sue Weaver outside. In her blind rage to asked for Micah to go with Adora in the ambulance as she went to confront Sue. _

_In her mind, she blanked out some parts of it. All she remembered was being pulled off of Sue by a police officer that happened to be the husband of a Country Club member. _

_From that point on the secret was out on some of Sue’s misdoings, but it also showed how bad of a temper Angella had. At this point on, the legal system is the only one in control of Sue and Angella’s fate. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angella punched Sue.


	11. Playground

Angella had a lot to say in her therapy session. She recounted all the horrible moments she had with Adora in the emergency room of the old hospital she worked at. How awkward it was for her to be so emotional during Adora’s treatment. Every nosey nurse peeking into their room to offer a fake greeting and ask if she needed anything. It was all for show. Angella kept her composure and tried her best not to snap at anyone during the whole ordeal.

“They all looked like they had seen a ghost when they saw me with Adora. These people act as if I’m the Wicked Witch of the West by the way their eyes popped out of their skulls when they saw me in the E.R.” she lamented.

Her therapist asked. “I take it they missed you?”

Angella shook her head “All my LPNs and RNs that worked under me directly have been moved to other floors. A few others who knew of my work only heard the bad things about me. Which are minor compared to what this new doctor is doing. He has all his new RNs running the how and they're all fresh out of college snobby girls who can’t even draw blood, let alone provide emergency care. Under pressure, they say he is terrible. For all my flaws, I could compose myself under the stress and needs of others. It’s about the patient, not us after all….” She kept her eyes on Razz as she explained. “If I’m the bad guy for telling a nurse she shouldn’t have a Dunkin Donuts coffee cup on her desk or telling nurses to that they aren’t taking blood correctly, then so be it. They got what they wanted. A new doctor, and new rules. The floors were unwashed in Adora’s room and I could just tell they were all scared of what I could have said to them”

“Did you say anything?” Razz asked.

“No, as much as I could of, I didn’t, my focus was on Adora… no one else”

Razz asked in a worried tone “No one else?”

Angella regretted her comment and explained “My family is important to me. All of them. But Adora needs me the most right now. I need to be there for her”

“Who’s here for you?” Razz asked.

Angella looked down at her wedding ring “Micah of course, Glimmer is trying her best to be understanding to what is going on—But she’s a sensitive child and I don’t want her to stress at her age”

She was hiding the truth. She had no one else that could understand her. A time like this would be great to have friends. Real friends. Not fake friends from the country club, but mothers who understood what she was going through. 

\--

Sue’s lawyer slid a photo to Angella over the long wooden office table. “As you can see by the photo, you did leave a mark below her right side of her mouth. The scratch is inflamed and is noticeable and cannot be concealed by make-up. It is a distraction to her work and will be it difficult for her to work until the swelling goes down” he stated. 

Micah and Angella both looked at the photo and looked back at the lawyer. He sat back in his seat and added “She would prefer to settle this out of court for a settlement. If not, she would want to take it to court”

Micah then inquired “She wants to press legal actions? The CCTV can confirm Sue aggressively stepped into Angella’s space and shoved her”

He interrupted “Yes, but Angella is the one who laid a hand on her, she could have called the police and walked away”

Angella wanted to defend herself. Before she could say something regrettable, she felt the strong hand of her husband on her lap. He answered for Angella “How much does Sue want to settle for?”

“$20,000”

\--

The school has been going well for Adora. Thanks to Angella making clothes matching chart to hang on the inside of her closet door; she had the independence to pick out her clothes. It was a tiny gesture of help, but it made Adora feel good. For Adora, all she wanted to do was make her family happy with her. Back in class, Adora was back to getting good grades; she would come home to show her mother her gold stars and Perfect scores on spelling and math tests. She was ahead of her class and knew all her time tables. Even with being out of school for two weeks, she was able to get back in the groove quickly, and it also helped that the nurses helped her with homework. 

Due to Micah working late, Glimmer and she got to stay after school for homework club and play in the gym due to rain. All the kids were playing until the parents started to show up to pick them up. Angella came to get the girls at the same awkward time as Jillian and Hanna. The three had an awkward exchange of “hello” before Angella called for Adora to get ready. Her blonde child ran up to hug her. All sweaty from running around. She asked, “Mommy can I play for five more minutes?” Angella desperately wanted to say no but shook her head “I’ll give you ten more minutes to play” Adora’s face brightened up as if she was given the best news imaginable and ran over to play with her friends some more. Glimmer saw the discomfort on all the adult's faces and decided the best thing to do was distract them with her nine-year-old nonsense. 

“Hi, mommy! Miss Hanna! Miss Jillian, look! I got a gold star on my time tables!” Glimmer declared as she showed her paper. The three parents congratulated her. Glimmer hoped this would be able to buy time for her mother to not feel uneasy around them. 

But Mermista grabbed her by the hand and told her “Adora got 10-minutes for us! Let’s play still!” and dragged her off. Foiling her plans. Glimmer knew her mother wasn’t good at making friends. She felt bad for her mother for that. Glimmer could make friends with anyone. Knowing her mom was uncomfortable made her sad for her and she wanted to help. This whole Adora thing made her much more sensitive to others around her. 

The three moms stood in silence for a moment. The longest 10-minutes were counting down. Jillian cleared her throat and turned to Angella “We heard you aren’t going back to work at any of the other hospitals after….. what happened”

Hanna tenses as Angella crossed her arms and turned to them. Her face seemed stoic in some way. Like she was going to tell a patient bad news.

“That’s correct. I need to sign resignation papers tomorrow at Mystacor Hospital”

The two other mothers’ eyes went wide. Mystacor was the richest hospital in the State next to their own. The company “Etheria Medical Group” owned almost every hospital, clinic, pharmacy, and physician office in the State. If she goes to Mystacor, she’ll be at headquarters in front of the big wigs. This meant it was way more than just a resignation. Something else was going on. If the other rumor about her having an altercation at the Children Hospital is true—could Angella be losing her livelihood?

Hanna couldn’t take it anymore. The blurted out “I’m sorry, we’re all sorry about what happened”

Angella questioned “Sorry for what?” she shrugged. “I wasn’t easy to work under and It wasn’t just you two…” she looked away as the hurt in her eyes was visible. Her arms seemed more to hold herself as she informed them “I was made to review my file of complaints, nurses and receptionists resigned because they didn’t like me. I know you all heard the stories, but I was made to read four files worth of hate-fueled reports on my teamwork” 

Jillian and Hanna gave nervous glances at each other. Their reports on Angella were not the kindest. 

Angella ended her statement with “With that, I’m conserving to go into private practice…. For now, I’ll be focusing on my family until that happens”

Hanna asked, “How long until you’re up and running?”

Angella sighed “Maybe a year or so,” she looked over to the girls playing. “It might be some time for me to go back into the workforce, but I know it’s all for the best”

Adora looked over to Angella, who pointed to her wrist and held up four fingers to signal that her time was almost up. 

Hanna asked, “Are you expecting to be out of work for a whole year?”

Angella frowned. It wasn’t a question she was happy to answer. She wanted to blame them for partially being gone from her old hospital. She took the high road and answered honestly “It wasn’t planned, but we’re going to handle it in strive”

Thankfully Adora took ten-minutes literal and was punctual in having her backpack in hand as she a to her mother.

“Thank you, mommy, ten minutes is up”

Angella was relieved.

The families all left, and the guilt sunk into Hanna-Marie as she asked Mermista “How are your friend's Glimmer and Adora doing now that Adora isn’t sick with the flu?”

Mermista leaned forward from the back seat and whispered “She didn’t have the flue mommy. It’s a super-secret between all of us, but Adora is doing okay. Jacob Milling asked her to marry him when they’re eighteen and she said she would have to get permission first”

Her mother smiled at that. The girls were their click—bound by their little secrets—and it was good to see morality between them. Hanna wasn’t a fool to know her daughter purposely deflected the question into some random story. She didn’t press it. If she wanted to rightfully know more about the Brighten’s she would have to be forward and ask them directly. Mermista has no idea that Hanna would spend time with Adora on the pediatric floor of the hospital. 

_Walking into the pediatric nurses’ room, she heard the whispers of nurses gossiping about the new patient in room 4._

_“She’s the adopted one”_

_“Really? Oh, my God. A month into adopting and her family is going through this?”_

_“Either the kid is trouble or being a doctor’s daughter is not all sunshine and rainbows”_

_Another woman chimed in and gleefully remarked “Maybe, but anyone would be miserable being her daughter” _

_Another remarked “I’m surprised she’s married. With her attitude and all,”_

_“Her husband is a nice guy”_

_“What a shame the worst women take all the good men”_

_They all left the break room and left Hanna confused. She didn’t bother to ask what was going on as she made her way to see her assigned patients for the day. Room 4 was on her chart and she looked in to see someone she didn’t expect. Little Adora Brighten sleeping. With arms fully wrapped in bandages. Whatever happened to her was not right. _

_The chart then had in bold writing._

_Suicidal minor. The patient is not to be left alone. _

_She looked surprised as she watched the sleeping child. _

_This girl is suicidal? She’s eight! She’s a baby! What could go on with a child-like her? Worse. What goes on in Angella’s home?_

\--

At home with the Brighten’s, Angella received word from her HR director. Letting her know that they did not want her to feel compelled to bring an attorney to their meeting. 

A loophole being she asked if her husband could be there for emotional support and they agreed.

Micah was in the office going over their finances to see how they will be after paying out to Sue.

Angella came down to see what the verdict was.

He took his reading glasses off and pointed to his computer screen to show her the spreadsheet.

“So, after dipping into savings writing that pays off check, deducting our leisure expenses, and giving up on lease to our SUV and your BMW, we’ll still be a little tight on expenses for the year…. Even after the sale of my cars at the shop go through, it will still be a rough year. We’re not going to have any vacations this year and I can always take on a second job and –” Angella cut him off.

“You’re not working yourself to death!” she declared “I can always work for a lesser paying job if need be! We’re going to get through this!” She turned to leave the office. She felt defeated in her attempts to be a good parent and wife. This was all her fault. If she wasn’t so mean at work, she would have never been suspended. If she wasn’t so over the top with Adora she would have become suicidal and if she never punched Sue, they would still have money in their savings. 

She looked in to see Adora in her bedroom, coloring. Glimmer was watching TV and she had to get dinner ready. 

She had to get more used to cooking at home. They ordered take out at least three times a week due to working long hours. That would have to change now. Also, no more cleaning lady coming to work for them on Sundays. 

She got ready to cook dinner. Heading back downstairs to head to the kitchen. She heard tiny bare feet follow her. 

“Mommy?” a timid voice called to her. Angella turned to see Adora looking up at her. She had two of her little pony figures in her hand and she asked, “Can I help with chores?”

Angella found it odd. She asked “Would you like to? You don’t have to if you don’t want to”

Adora put her ponies on the table and assured her “I want to spend time with you”

Angella felt her throat go slightly dry at this, but she nodded and offered her daughter a whisk and instructed “I’m going to add four ingredients in this bowl. You can mix them all, okay?”

Adora nodded. 

It wasn’t long after until Glimmer saw them cooking together downstairs and offered to help.

It was something neither of them had done before. 

\--

Bedtime came and Angella was in Adora’s room. She opened up a plastic package and showed her the white crinkly undergarments “These are special nighttime pants” she lied.

Adora frowned and corrected “Those are diapers….”

Angella felt guilty for the lie and assured her “It’s only temporary sweetheart, the medication and all the bad dreams you’ve had have triggered these accidents. You won’t have to wear them for long, I promise, I just don’t want you to lose so much sleep over this”

Adora didn’t like this at all. She asked, “No one had to know right?”

Angella promised “Only us in the family know, and no one will say anything to anyone”

Adora confirmed, “So school doesn’t need to know?”

“No sweetheart” she promised.

Adora nodded and asked, “When I stop having accidents, can I stop wearing them?”

“Yes, my sweet girl” she promised her. She was off to bed soon after that. She was still reeling with worry. In haste, they got in contact with their real estate agent and a stockbroker. In case they needed to liquidate assets for Angella going without work. It was horrible that only she had to suffer. Sue has walked away from all of this with more money and more power over harming children. How can the child welfare system be being so broken?

\--

Sue was on for theatrics. Laying on the couch with a frozen bag of green beans on her face. She winced in pain as she turned to Kyle and Catra, who was pampering her with doing chores around the living room to stay on her good side. She turned to Catra and asked “Carlotta, be a good girl. Light me a cigarette” 

Catra did so, an eight-year-old lighting a cigarette for a lazy adult. She coughed as the smoke hit her nose. Sue remarked “Cover your mouth when you cough, it’s not healthy,” she said taking a puff. 

Kyle’s asthma made him need to leave the room. She turned to Catra as the child sat on the floor close to her. She tried to touch the cut on Sue’s face. Sue just moved her hand away. Catra asked.

“It’s true, that means lady hurt you for trying to help Adora?” was the lie she told the older kids when Sue came home in the back of a cop car. 

Of course, anything Adora related would spark Catra’s interests. 

Sue ran with it, just to make the child feel worse. 

“Yes, my semi-well-behaved child, Adora has been doing so awful in her new family's care. I tried to help but was stopped by her evil mother Doctor Angella, Adora has turned cruel by them. All she cares about is her new rich life. I tried to get her back to be with her true family, but she’d rather be with them”

Catra looked scared and sad and asked: “Why?”

Sue blew smoke in the child’s face as she told her “She’s being brainwashed. She thinks her horrible new life and being mistreated by her new mother is the right way to live”

She saw the hurt in Catra’s eyes as stroked the child’s thick brown hair “Be grateful Carlotta, I will never let anyone hurt you”

Catra hugged her. 

“Sue, I promise I will never leave you!” 

This angered Sue. This pathetic promise has been made to her many times before. Instead of pushing the child away, she allowed her to embrace and reminded Catra “No one will ever adopt you with your behavioral problems, Carlotta. Behave for me and we’ll both be okay”

Her words were cold, but this was the only comforting sighs she ever received from Sue. It made her feel loved. Even if it was fake, this was the only love Catra had to her own. 

Stupid ungrateful Adora would never understand how badly she hurt her and Sue for leaving. She promised Sue she would never be Adora’s friend again. 

\--

The next day at school. 

A group of kids giggled and laughed around Entrapta as she read another book out loud for her classmates. She was reading a very dirty book for them. This time a girl grabbed this book off her aunt’s coffee table and asked if Entrapta could read it. 

Entrapta had no qualm in showing off her reading ability and proceeded to read a random page.

_“He takes his sweet, torturous time – luxuriating in his private viewing activity. He makes no move to touch me but the ravenous mold of his face is pushing me to run up the steps of desire, taking them three at a time. I shift in needy response._

_He growls, low in his chest while he grips my inner thighs, pushing them apart. “Keep still or I’ll make you.” I gasp at his provocative threat and on pure instinct and raw desire, my hips tilt up by their own accord, crazy in its need for any contact. His hands slip around, cupping my backside as he pushes his nose into my sex, inhaling deeply._

_Oh, my fucking my!”_

The crowd of kids around her started laughing loudly. Some commenting on how she said the “F” word. That was enough for a teacher to come around to see what she was reading and snatch it up. Scolding the kids and told them all to leave to the cafeteria to sit out the rest of recess. Now Entrapta was alone sitting on the ground. 

Glimmer now being the _self-appointed ambassador for autism_ tried to see what was going on and offered to have Entrapta play with her and Bow on the swings. When they asked why she got in trouble she told them.

“I read books that people bring in for me and sometimes they don’t know what they bring me to read”

Bow asked, “What did you read today?”

Entrapta shrugged “I think a romance novel, maybe? It had an “F” word in it, so that’s why they got in trouble”

Glimmer raised a brow at how odd it was that she didn’t get in trouble for reading it out loud. She then asked. “What other books got you in trouble”

Entrapta listed off the books she’s read “A book on doomsday, a book on Adolf Hitler, some book on chemicals, one brochure on penis enlargement, a book about suicide, and then some romance novels” 

Bow stopped swinging and uncomfortably left the group after Entrapta said penis. 

Glimmer stopped swinging too and asked more about her suicide book reading. After Entrapta explained what happened weeks ago, it all made sense. But this girl is autistic too. Adora and she are different though, Adora had more of a sense of people’s feelings and was very alert in some other regards to social norms. Entrapta wasn’t. Entrapta is a bad influence on Adora. 

\--

After school, Angella picked the girls up. Glimmer was in a bad mood. When she got home, she heard Glimmer telling Adora something.

“You can’t be friends with Entrapta, she’s a bad influence on your autism” 

Angella quickly went into the bedroom and asked for Glimmer to explain herself “What are you telling her?”

Glimmer turned to her mother with a serious face. “Mom, a girl at school reads bad books to kids on the playground, and no teacher does anything except send them away to sit alone. I told the teacher and they said Entrapta doesn’t know any better, because of Autism. Entrapta said she is neurodivergent and—” judging by her mother’s dismissive look on the matter, Glimmer turned back to Adora to hug her. “She says bad words, mom! She’ll set a bad example for Adora’s impressionable mind”

Adora questioned, “I’m impressionable?”

Angella and Glimmer both said in unison “Yes!”

Glimmer then remarked “If Adora hangs out with that girl she’ll start saying bad words. That girl said a bad word and didn’t get in trouble”

Angella’s eyes went a little wide “This Entrapta girl curses?”

Glimmer then replied, “She read the bad word in a book and said it out loud!” she turned to Adora and commanded, “Adora says the “F” word Entrapta said!”

Angella’s eyes went wide “No! Adora sweetie, don’t listen to Glimmer if she’s telling to say a bad word!”

Adora nervously darted her eyes back and forth through her mother and sister and took a deep breath.

Glimmer yelled again “Say the word Entrapta said!”

Adora then yelled “FRIDGERATOR!”

Both Glimmer and Angella started laughing.

Glimmer tried to say in between laughs “That wasn’t the word I meant”

Adora shrugged “That was the last word I heard Entrapta say!”

Angella kissed Adora’s forehead and commented on what a good girl she was. Adora hugged her mom. She was still a little confused “Was it the wrong word?”

Glimmer sighed “No, I just thought you heard Entrapta say the word fuck”

Angella yelled “Glimmer!” 


	12. Recover

Angella and Micah always felt they were good and hard-working people. Surrounding themselves with good acquaintances and friends, they never felt unsafe around people at work or the Country Club. When push came to shove, they realized they were bleeding hearts, they were the _new money_, the power couple that came from nothing to finally have everything. In a matter of months, they realized they were on their own when it came to the issues, they held dear. No one in their group of alleged friends cared about child abuse, no one wanted to help foster a child, no one cared for what they had gone through with being lied to be child and family services. They received no justice for Hordak and Sue! Hordak will go to jail for tax reasons, not extortion! And Sue won’t go to jail or lose custody of her fosters at all! Due to the Lack of qualified foster parents. All Sue will receive is more monitored visits from other Child Family Social workers. The Hospital is under investigation, but it’s not public knowledge. The medical group Angella worked for did a settlement outside of court. Although the check was huge, the reasons they won it were worse.

_Micah was holding Angella’s hands as Jeff informed them what taking the offer of a settlement will do for them. _

_Jeff sat back in his chair “Take it. Don’t fight it. Don’t fight them. Just take it. You’re lucky to get this, anyone else they would have smeared their name and threatened. If you try to fight them, they will destroy you. Take it and go. Start your businesses and avoid the phony ass people we deal with daily” _

_Angella always felt Jeff was too good to be true. As the Attorney General and good friend to Micah, she always felt he was leading to be liked over being honest all the time. In truth, he did care and want to do right by people, but he can see through how awful some of their rich friends are. In truth, there was no way to take an on a billion-dollar medical company, and no one to fix the foster care system on their own. All they could do was be good parents to Adora. _

They were richer than before and they went out of their way to spoil the girls, to which they didn’t care. Glimmer already had all the toys she wanted. She settled on walkie-talkies so she can communicate with Bow far away on the playground. Adora just asked for more pony figures, but upon walking down the baby aisle in the toy store, she saw bathtub toys and asked for them. She also asked it was okay if she could have a bath to play with the bath toys. Angella agreed to let her do this. Adora was still showing no signs of anger towards them. All she wanted was to play with toys and have company while doing so. Micah even played my little ponies with her; mainly due to a large number of guy ponies and _“redone”_ gets to push a cart around (Big Mac) Angella also took time to do arts and crafts and read with Adora. She was pleased to find that Adora was a good reader. Glimmer played with Adora too, even though Glimmer didn’t like ponies or drawing, she kept Adora company and it made her happy.

Now with a big payout for simply accepting an error was made in Adora’s treatment and as a former valued Doctor for the company, Angella was left jobless, but well off. Micah and she washed their hands completely of their former friends and all their baggage that made them unhappy. But now they were both bored. Now with Micah being car shop less and he quit the law firm he worked for due to all this family stress. 

Now the two were laying in bed, dressed for the day and with nothing to do with the girls at school. Micah turned to his wife “We could have sex again?” he offered as he reached for her chest and grinned. She swatted his hand away “Not happening” she replied. 

He chuckled and commented “You didn’t mind it when I was performing an oral exam on you yesterday”

Angella rolled her eye and correct him “If it was an oral exam, that would require you doing something to my mouth—” she stopped herself from explaining any further as she saw the growing smile on his face. She turned away from him as he teased “I try and try to give you practice on your oral skills, but you keep turning me down” his laughter vibrated the bed a little. She couldn’t help but smile at his dirty-minded talk. She should be grateful to have a man so sexually attracted to her. He ruined it with his final comment “For a master surgeon who’s done hundreds of hands-on operations, you sure aren’t good at handjobs” he felt a kick on his side as she got up from the bed. He laughed at her reaction.

Angella turned to him “Besides, my inability to please you with my hands, can we please discuss our plans for the future”

Micah sat up in confusion “like what? We got a massive settlement for your company almost killing our daughter, we just found out all our friends at the country club are fake, and I sold the auto shop in a hurry so now we have a huge amount of money. Not that money was ever a problem for us before, but now it is not”

Angella sat back down on the bed and commented “Our accountant said we should pay off the house and place the rest in trust funds for the girls. Even if we do that, we still have a good amount left for whatever”

Micah asked, “Why are you so eager to spend it all?”

Angella replied “I hate having it” she turned to him with a saddened expression “I lost my job and was offered hush money for my child suffering. We shouldn’t be rewarded for Adora’s suffering. She won't even talk about what went on” Angella was more guilty over everything that happened. She knew she faulted in Adora’s mental collapse, but now that everything is on the up and up. Adora has shown no resentment towards Angella or anyone else and just seems to be a happy kid again. As much as Angella wanted that to be true, she feared Adora was suffering internally and was due for another breakdown if it didn’t get addressed. She then commented that Casta will be over today to discuss the whole Adora situation over with her and give her additional autism understatement. 

Micah was surprised and happy to hear Angella was making efforts to help Adora and be in the same room as Casta. He never liked their distance from one another. It was unfair to the family that the two didn’t get along due to job reasons. 

Casta had picked the girls up from school. Angella gave into Micah’s suggestion from earlier and wobbled a bit to her bathroom to re-shower. Micah followed after into the shower with her while Casta got the chance to spoil the girls a little with some ice cream on the way home from school. 

Casta took notice of Adora’s mannerisms and how they had changed. In the line to order ice cream she held Glimmer’s hand as an indication of anxiety settling in as the line was long and filled with adults. Glimmer held her hand and checked on where Adora’s eyes were darting. She saw Adora was uneasy around all the adults and stood closer to her and started to talk about school and boys to get Adora’s anxiety under control. 

Casta was surprised to see this. Glimmer at age nine was able to pick up on social distress in her sister so easily and could refuse the stress without getting an adult or needing guidance through it. As an aunt, she was happy to see this. In her pettiest of thoughts, she mentally noted it was not a trait inherited by Angella. 

Once they got home the girls went into their bedrooms to play. Casta saw how Adora practically ran into Angella’s arms. She was happy to see her mother. The young girl’s thoughts focused heavily on her parent’s approval. Adora did think about the past a lot and all the things that happened prior, but seeing her mother happy to see her, made her decide it was best not to tell mommy about her other feelings. After her hug, she opened up her backpack to reveal on her snacks and candy bars she received from boys at the playground. Angella smiled at Adora’s sweet and simple explanation for all her treats. 

“Mommy I got more treats from boys on the playground”

Angella replied enthused “You did?”

Adora pulled out cookies and cream bar, a twinkie, and a fruit rollup. “Yeah, from the boys that want to be my boyfriend,” she said. Angella held back a laugh and looked up at Casta and Micah, who was also trying not to laugh. Glimmer rolled her eyes. If this was her in this situation, she would never tell anyone that’s boys liked her because she would hate the teasing. None of the adults laughed at Adora, but they did all find it cute how Adora seemed to have admirers she didn’t know what to do with. Micah asked. “Can I have your fruit rollup?” 

Angella shot him a look, but Adora just agreed to it “Here you go, daddy”

Adora then turned to her mother and mentioned “Daddy says I don’t need to have a boyfriend, and I never have to date if I don’t want to”

Angella glared at him as he took a bite of his fruit roll-up “He did, did he?”

Micah commented “That’s right” and kissed the top of Adora’s head. Glimmer took Adora by the hand to get out of the room with the adults. She told her they were going to play with her walkie talkies. 

Angella and Casta took this time to sit in the office to discuss Adora. 

Casta saw a slightly different strut in Angella’s manner. Angella seemed to be defeated, her confident walk of strength was depleted. She was sad. Maybe also ashamed? In all of Adora’s needs, she claimed to know best _and that a doctor of her credentials would know how to raise a child, especially one who is high functioning autistic_

In time, Angella has been humbled or in another term _dethroned_ off the perfect pedestal she placed herself on, or at least the one people assumed her to be on. Either way, she had given in completely. 

Angella sat on the office chair by her desk and offered for Casta to sit on Micah’s side. It was a good first step in showing equal respect. There was a couch in the room and Angella could have been snarky enough to make her sit there to imply this a consultation to Casta more than two concerned family members talking about someone they care about together. Casta took whatever small curtsey as anything positive at this point. 

Casta spoke first “Can I ask about her new routine and how she has adjusted to it?”

Giving Angella the floor to vent as much as possible; the British woman took it. Firstly, by handing Casta the three medications Adora has been prescribed. 

“Since the hospital incident, her pediatrician recommended a sleeping pill, a mood and anxiety regulator, and cortisol regulating pill to help with her depression and stress from her trauma” Casta looked at all three pill bottles and examined the dosage and questioned, “Is there any effect to these that are unnatural?”

Angella frowned and answered “She’s tired easily. She goes to bed very early. She’s a little groggy in the morning but has great energy at school. her appetite has increased exponentially. We give her more food in the lunch box due to the craving of filling snacks. She still likes to run and play, but now that she sleeps so heavily at night, she’s developed bedwetting. Something she had before due to nightmares, but now its due to her body not telling her to wake up in time. It upsets her greatly”

Casta examined the dosages. Two of the medications operated as sleep aids, so Adora was taking double the amount of sleep aids and that was triggering her bedwetting. This would not have been caught by a pediatrician right away due to it having such great results on her mood, the wetting would be deemed a simple symptom due to high success.

Casta frowned and inquired “I’ve seen this combination in teenagers, it causes constant fatigue to the point where kids can’t even wake up for school in the morning. Also, sleeping in class can occur over time. If she wets at night, she could wet if she fell asleep in class because she is still so young” she handed the meds back to Angella “Take away the sleep aid. The other meds have sleep aids in them. If anything, I would suggest a low dosage of melatonin; it’s an organic sleep pill”

Angella nodded and turned to place them on her desk. 

Casta took this second of vulnerability to ask “Does Adora talk about how she feels under these new meds?” 

Angella shook her head “No, she doesn’t share much with me about feelings. She deflects a lot”

Casta inquired “Has she always done this?”

Angella nodded “If she doesn’t deflect, she struggles with articulation. Her teacher says if Adora gets shy or nervous she struggles in articulation, or if kids argue she deflects or becomes sensitive to the situation. With me, she just tells me what she thinks I want to hear”

Casta sat up “Should we talk to her, together. See if she talks to us”

Angella stood up to disagree “Her therapist recommended no force. She has mentally shut down. If we force her to talk, she could mentally regress”

“She’s not going to mentally regress. Regression occurs in trauma that is unresolved” 

Angella nodded “Some cases state autistic mentally regresses in situations of extreme stress and trauma. For children, they regress into baby-like attitudes to avoid the confrontation of stress. With Adora stuck wearing diapers to bed and already being humiliated by that. I don’t want to force to talk and then it causes her to mentally shut down”

Casta disagreed “Adora has severe depression and self-worth issues. She isn’t going to regress to a state of attention and need, she doesn’t hold herself to that standard if anything she might become suicidal again in her teen years” Although it was an honest analysis, it did hurt Angella. Casta barely sees through Angella’s true feelings. But this is one of the times she has seen Angella come close to tears over Adora. 

Casta tried to deflect a little with some humor. “You weren’t this sensitive when you gave birth to Glimmer, and you chose against an epidural”

Angella laughed a little at that “Should have known then Glimmer would be difficult…. she fought to stay in”

Casta laughed “Well she had it made, so why leave?”

Heading upstairs they saw Adora was in her room putting something away. Casta knocked on her door and asked, “Honey can auntie come in?”

Adora looked at her and nodded. Adora got on her bed to sit and asked, “Want to see the ponies that mommy bought for me?”

Casta smiled at her “I would love to see your ponies”

Casta wanted to give Adora all the control in the encounter. Doing this will make Adora more comfortable in opening up in a way that is organic and comfortable. Adora took a plastic box out with a treasure trove of plastic pastel-colored horses. Presenting Casta with two purple ponies that were her favorite ones. Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer because she liked the colors on them. Casta paid mind to all little names and how Adora described them. She mentioned that she could watch the show now because daddy has Netflix and daddy showed her how to use YouTube kids on her Tablet.

Casta asked, “At your old house where you allowed watching TV?”

Adora answered “Yes, but we didn’t have cable. We watched old movies on VHS and DVD” 

Adora placed a red pony in Casta’s hand and informed “This is a boy pony. Daddy likes this one because his name is Big Mac, and he likes Big Macs and McDonalds”

Casta smiled and looked around Adora’s room. In a way to get Adora to talk more about personal feelings instead of ponies. Angella walked in, and now the real conversation needed to happen.

Casta had an incredible soft-spoken and impressive method of giving a child power in a situation but still be in complete control over the flow of how the dialogue will be presented. She asked for Adora’s permission to talk to her and have Angella sit with them. Something that Angella wouldn’t have thought to do. As Adora got comfortable she asked if Adora wanted a blanket and a stuffed animal. 

Adora had a blue blanket wrapped around her stuffed monkey_ Howie _in her hand. This gave Adora’s sensory needs a relief under any stress she might endure. 

In a short amount of time. All the feelings and thoughts flooded out. 

Casta started “Adora, you’ve been through so much, we love you so much and we just want to ask if you're okay…..” 

Adora tensed a little as Angella placed her arms around Adora for an embrace. Casta saw the unease in Adora’s body language and offered “If you don’t want to talk about anything right now you can just say so. No one will force you to talk if you don’t want to”

Adora looked up at Angella. The pleading look of a scared child gives their mothers in times of distress. Angella brushed some loose hair away from and assured her “We don’t need to talk about anything you don’t want to sweetheart”

Adora cuddled up to her and said “All the things that happened made me sad. I don’t want to be sad anymore”

Casta extended her arm out to touch Adora’s leg “Do you still feel sad now?”

Adora looked down and nodded. She didn’t want to admit that to them. She didn’t want to hurt them or make them sad or mad at her. But the truth is. She needed to tell them. They were heard to listen. 

Casta asked “Can you tell us, Adora? what we can do to help you?”

Angella added “Anything you want sweetheart. We’ll do it”

Adora paused before she started to speak. Her wants were simple. She likes affection. She wants validation, routines, and comfort. She misses some parts of her old life with Sue. She identifies that Sue was bad and mean. She shared horrible and vivid memories of Sue’s abuse. What she had to witness and endure. Despite her pain, she missed some parts of that life. She was happy with her new life and was sorry for her actions. She remembers the night of her suicide attempt, she remembers Angella trying to resuscitate her. Adora being so naïve she thought she was getting princess kissed and Angella had to explain what CPR is so Adora wouldn’t go on thinking her adopted mother kissed her while she is unconscious. After that humorous exchange, they went back to talking about stresses Adora faces and the thing she wants to do. Things that make her sad and things she doesn’t like. 

They needed to know what Adora’s needs are going forward. Now things can change and get better. 


End file.
